Louis van Gaal is concerned that he could be losing the backing of Manchester United supporters following another largely abject showing in their 3-1 victory against Burnley.

The Red Devils moved up to third place in the Premier League table with the win, leapfrogging Southampton to consolidate their Champions League qualification hopes, although their lowly opponents caused plenty of problems at Old Trafford.

United were branded a 'long-ball team' by West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce earlier this week, comments which irked Van Gaal, but the Dutchman struggled to defend his side following last night's contest, claiming that they were perhaps "lucky" to take all three points.

"I heard the first whistles - that is a concern because we are playing for the fans," he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News. "The fans are the most important part of the club.

"They keep the club living and that is very important but they also applauded after the match and always in matches there is 90 minutes, not 45. Today it was like that, I agree with that, so that is a pity because the fans were still supporting, because of the positive [score] at half time.

"I thought that was fantastic when the team was playing [like] that. I never had that experience with my other teams so I was happy with the support of the teams. But of course we cannot have that the next game because then we are out of the FA Cup because we were also lucky today."

United follow up next week's FA Cup fifth-round tie at Preston North End with a trip to face Swansea City in the league.