Former Manchester United defender Paul Parker has called on the club to appoint Tim Sherwood as manager instead of former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.

It has been widely suggested that Louis van Gaal will not be in charge of the Red Devils next season due to a string of disappointing results and performances.

After last weekend's 2-1 defeat to Sunderland, United's hopes of finishing the campaign in a Champions League spot took a major hit as they are now six points behind fourth-placed Manchester City.

Despite Mourinho winning a league title at every club that he has coached, including Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid, Parker believes that Sherwood, who was sacked by Aston Villa in October last year, is the right man.

"To suggest that he could walk in to a crisis situation at United and turn it around is absurd," Parker wrote for Eurosport. "That's something he's never done in his career and this really wouldn't be the time to start. He's lost a huge amount of respect in the game and I suspect the players at United hate the idea of him taking over.

"Frankly, given how unhappy the players are right now, they'd be better off bringing in Tim Sherwood between now and the end of the season - someone to soft-soap the players, give them a bit of a cuddle, get them feeling good about themselves once again.

"Sadly, as we've seen with Tim, those sorts of managers don't work long-term and United need to start thinking about the long term as soon as possible because, if not, they face the ultimate danger - turning into the new Liverpool."

United are in danger of ending the season with 60 points or fewer, which would be their lowest ever total since 1991.