Gary Neville stunned by ‘unforgivable’ Man Utd statistic showing huge drop in standards

Gary Neville was astounded by the amount of possession Manchester City had in the latter stages of their drubbing of Manchester United, whom he described as “spiritless”.

Man Utd suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of their cross-city rivals on Sunday. Despite a competitive first half, Neville’s former club were second best across the 90 minutes. Ultimately, they were sunk by braces from Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez.

Ralf Rangnick pinpointed City’s third goal as the moment the game was well and truly taken away from his side. The statistics proved it, especially in terms of how City kept hold of the ball.

United did not attempt a single shot in the second half, while City dominated possession after taking a two-goal lead.

The extent to which they did stunned Gary Neville, who told his former club that it was “nowhere near good enough” – even if there was a sense it had been coming.

He told Sky Sports (quoted by the BBC): “For that last 25 minutes, Man Utd were spiritless. They were walking around the pitch.

“After the third goal went in, City had 92% possession. That’s unprecedented, that’s unheard of and it’s unforgivable – nowhere near good enough.

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“For the past two to three months, United have been plastering over the wounds, playing against sides that you don’t have to be at your best to get a result. The only two teams they’ve played from the top eight, City and Wolves, have done them – and there’s a few tough games coming up.

“The dressing room isn’t broken, but it isn’t far off. The evidence is there. You find out what it’s like when the going gets tough and a lot of them went missing.”

Roy Keane echoes Gary Neville

Another ex-United player who was critical of how their players folded was Roy Keane.

He said on the same broadcast: “There’s ways to lose football matches, we’ve all lost football matches, but the way United lost today – they stopped running, they gave up, there’s players out there not running back.

“That’s what I don’t understand. The manager will be criticised, and the tactics, but players not running back when they are playing for Man Utd is unacceptable, it really is.

“They threw the towel in, which is shameful.

“I was getting really frustrated watching it. I can forgive mistakes, but you’ve got to run back.

“There were players, five or six players, and I was thinking they should never play for Man Utd again. Just shameful, shameful that you can’t run back, that you can’t put your body on the line.”

United clearly have a lot of issues to address ahead of matches against Tottenham Hotspur and Atletico Madrid on the horizon.

READ MORE: ‘Almost impossible’ – Ralf Rangnick pinpoints moment derby ran away from Man Utd as big ‘gap’ exposed