Manchester United

Manchester United

Premier League • England

Neville savages ‘incapable’ Man Utd after finally laying blame on Solskjaer

Gary Neville Sky Sports pundit on Friday Night Football

Gary Neville claimed Manchester United are “incapable” at one particular element of football, and finally laid some measure of blame for the club’s woes at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Manchester United fell to a dismal 5-0 defeat against bitter rivals Liverpool on Sunday. The victory was Liverpool’s highest ever against United at Old Trafford.

And while the Reds looked back to their ominous best going forward, United did themselves no favours with a disjointed and error-strewn display.

Indeed, one particular element of their performance left a lot to be desired.

After recent criticism was levelled at the front four’s lack of defensive effort, United appeared intent on pressing high up the pitch.

However, the players rarely pressed as a unit, allowing Liverpool to cut through the lines with relative ease.

Speaking after the match on Sky Sports, Gary Neville claimed today’s result was “as bad as it gets”. He then went on to say Solskjaer and his staff have to “take the blame” for United’s misguided pressing. That comes after Neville has been extremely reluctant to criticise his former team-mate in the public sphere.

“This is the first super team they are playing against and they are getting pulled apart,” said Neville.

“I said it before, half decent teams are scoring goals against them, proper teams will batter them.

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“This is bad as it gets, we have all lost matches in a bad way, Sir Alex Ferguson lost 6-1 against Manchester City, I lost 5-0 at Newcastle, it happens, but it is the nature of the performance, they have capitulated.

“Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will get that chance to change it I believe, but there will be untold pressure from every source.

“The manager will get an absolute battering and there will be calls for his head like you would not believe in this next 24 hours.”


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Gary Neville savages Solskjaer’s pressing order

“The thing that stands out in my mind is the organisation around the press,” continued the pundit. “Pressing aimlessly without a real trigger, Liverpool just pulling them apart – so many other things, bad individually.

“He [Solskjaer] and his coaching team have got to take the blame for the way the team press.

“Whatever happened at Leicester has been repeated today. I can’t believe the tactics of pressing. They are not capable, they haven’t got it in them. Rashford, Greenwood, Ronaldo, you are not going to win the ball back with those three. You have to play on the counter-attack.

“Solskjaer has played for three years deep and on the counter attack. I have no idea why he has tried to press here. This Man Utd team are incapable of pressing.”

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