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| Louis van Gaal has called Jamie Vardy a 'nasty' threat and believes there are similarities between him and Ruud van Nistelrooy - the man whose record the Leicester striker is attempting to break this weekend. |
Vardy will break Van Nistelrooy's 12-year Premier League record on Saturday if he scores in his 11th consecutive match when the Foxes face Manchester United.
When Vardy was playing non-league football three-and-a-half years ago, few would have predicted he would have been likened to one of the greatest strikers seen on these shores in recent times.
Van Nistelrooy is the 11th highest scorer in United's 137-year history, netting 150 goals in 219 matches for the club.
The Dutchman won league titles in England, Spain and Holland, while Vardy's biggest achievement to date is helping Leicester get promoted to the Premier League in the summer of 2014.
But there is no sense of snobbery from Van Gaal when it comes to Vardy's recent scoring run.
"More or less, Van Nistelrooy is like Vardy," the United manager said.
"He is highly concentrated to make goals and is always running in behind, so you can compare them."
Van Gaal knows how hard it is to maintain such a prolific scoring run.
Dennis Bergkamp is the only man to have scored in 10 consecutive league games under the Dutchman - and his run came more than 20 years ago with Ajax.
He also knows first hand how deadly Vardy can be in front of goal.
The 28-year-old scored one and had a hand in the other four goals in Leicester's 5-3 win over United last season.
Van Gaal regards Vardy as a "nasty" threat, but one he feels his new and improved defence can cope with.
''He was last season a very nasty player for us,'' Van Gaal said.
''He scored, won a penalty, and now he is scoring 10 games in a row, then you are a great player.
''I only know Dennis Bergkamp as a player who did the same with Ajax. It's not so easy to do that.
"He is a player who is difficult to defend.
"It shall be difficult I think, but we can do that because we have a lot of clean sheets already."
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