Louis van Gaal has admitted that he understands Manchester United supporters' frustrations over the club's unadventurous approach this season.

The Red Devils have lost just two of their last 22 matches to remain in strong contention for a top-four finish come the end of the campaign, although the slow style of play has come in for criticism in recent weeks.

Jeers from the home section of Old Trafford could be heard during the 2-0 victory over Sunderland when Jonny Evans played the ball back to goalkeeper David de Gea, rather than pushing into an advanced area.

Ahead of his side's match against Newcastle United this evening, Van Gaal is quoted by ESPN as saying: "I agree with the fans that we don't have to use so much the goalkeeper, because I have seen also moments where we can play a higher tempo without interfering with the goalkeeper, but the goalkeeper is also the 11th player.

"He can accelerate our game also and sometimes the solution is, via De Gea, to play forward. That is a higher tempo than playing the ball to the player next to you as De Gea is always the second station and it is always better to play the second station, in my opinion, than the first station as you need a lot of first stations to come there."

"What we can improve is our unnecessary ball losses. When we can avoid too much ball losses unnecessarily then we make a big step."

United follow up tonight's trip to St James' Park with an FA Cup quarter-final tie against Arsenal next week.