Fuming Gary Neville calls Man Utd a ‘disgrace’ and names players who are going to ‘kill’ Michael Carrick

Manchester United players have been absolutely taken to the cleaners by a raging Gary Neville following Sunday’s draw at Fulham, with the pundit describing them as “mannequins” and insisting the club needs a “rebalance” after what he says is the worst 15 minutes he has ever witnessed at the club.

The Red Devils needed an 89th-minute Matheus Cunha strike to rescue a point from Fulham, with Alvaro Arbeloa’s side having taken the lead thanks to a 63rd-minute own goal from Lisandro Martinez.

But while gaining a point is certainly better than a loss, United are stranded in 12th place, and pressure is starting to build on manager Michael Carrick after the club’s joint-lowest ever tally at this point in a Premier League season (five points after five games) and the first time that has happened since 2014/15.

Despite that, Neville has offered a strong explanation as to why sacking Carrick is not the answer.

Instead, during a lengthy rant on Sky Sports, the pundit has torn into the club’s players for a perceived lack of effort, insisting the club need a “reset” and that major changes are coming in one position.

“That was the worst 15 minutes I’ve ever seen from Manchester United; I’ve never seen a team walk out of possession as much as that,” a sour-faced Neville began.

“And Michael just said there that he was happy with the team’s energy. Michael’s got to stop defending them. He’s got to stop defending them. I get why he’s defending them. He’s loyal. He’s loyal. He wants his players to work for him, and obviously, there’s a long way to go in the season.

“I called them mannequins. They were absolutely mannequins!

“I’ve never seen a Manchester United team for 15 minutes walk around out of possession as much as that [at the start of the second half]. No alertness, no liveliness, no sort of playing on your toes. You should always be on your toes.

“There’s no sort of shifting up two or three yards. Just walking when Fulham were in possession. Fulham had 46 passes in the first couple of minutes of the game to get a chance. 46 passes Fulham against Manchester United, I don’t know how many over-10-pass sequences Fulham had in that match.”

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Man Utd players are ‘killing Michael Carrick’

Nevill insists the international break has come at the right time for Manchester United, but fears the coach has a lot of work to do with his players and will need to make major changes in midfield.

He also fears that their lack of midfield protection, inability to do the ugly side of the game and their poor defensive performances are going to, in his words, kill the manager.

“It’s a great time for the international break and for the three weeks. It’s a great time because there needs to be a rebalance,” Neville continued.

“He’s got too many players in the team now. I actually wish he could play those attacking players, but they’re going to kill him defensively.

“It’s not just the defence and the back four that cause him a problem. You’ve got Mbeumo and Rashford who are too wide and too high, and they don’t get narrow back in. He [Rashford] knows that position better than anybody. He knows he needs to get back in and narrow your midfield.

“You then got Tielemans and Mainoo in midfield are a little bit one pace. So Baleba will probably come in there.

“And then Bruno, to be fair, at times just floats around a little bit. Then you’ve got Cunha, who floats around a little bit.

“So you’ve got these sort of five or six players really who are all better with the ball than without the ball.

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“It would be great to see them go and score loads of goals and maybe concede one or two and win games, but there is going to have to be a reset from a point of view of the defensive structure because there’s far too many of them walking on the pitch that don’t think they have players who can do the ugly part of the game.

“And I never, very rarely do I say that a team doesn’t work hard or is lacking in effort because that’s the ultimate criticism that you can give a group of players.

“And I always think football players want to wake up in the morning and they want to run the football match and not get criticised.

“So I’m always very careful not to say that.

“But that first 15 minutes, that second half, Manchester United without the ball, and generally for the first 15 minutes, were an absolute disgrace. Nowhere near good enough without the ball. Nowhere near good enough!”