Manchester United: Paul Parker urges Red Devils to replace Louis van Gaal with Tim Sherwood until end of this season

Paul Parker has urged Manchester United's board to show the exit door to Louis van Gaal and replace him with Tim Sherwood until the end of the 2015/16 season. The Dutchman saw his side suffer yet another defeat as they lost to Sunderland 2-1 at the Stadium of Light in the last fixture.

After 26 games, the Old Trafford club sit in the fifth place with 41 points, six points behind fourth-placed Manchester City. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager's future at United has reportedly come under pressure on several occasions throughout the course of the season, but Van Gaal suggested he has got the backing of the club's board.

Jose Mourinho was sacked from his job at Chelsea last December and he has been constantly linked to replace the current United manager. Paris Saint-Germain defender David Luiz, who played under the Portuguese tactician at Stamford Bridge and Harry Redknapp are confident that Mourinho will be the next United manager.

Parker has suggested that appointing the former Real Madrid manager at United will be a disaster.

"United went from bad to worse this weekend. They certainly don't look like a team about to surge back into form and make a run into the top four of the Premier League. But bringing in Jose Mourinho? That is absolutely not the answer," Parker told Eurosport.

"Mourinho's history in the game tells you all you need to know: he's a man who needs control, and who flounders in situations when he has lost it. And that's what happened at Chelsea: with the squad getting away from him, he was unable to turn it round."

"So to suggest that he could walk into a crisis situation at United and turn it around is absurd. 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, given 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," the former United defender concluded.