Gary Neville pinpointed where Manchester United must improve in an explosive rant following their derby day draw.
The Red Devils held Manchester City to a 0-0 stalemate at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
Neville launched into an astonishing post-match rant following the Manchester derby[/caption]
Neville’s former club mustered just two shots on target during the match, where he was on co-commentary duties for Sky Sports.
Following the draw, the former defender criticised the attitude of the players as they came off the pitch.
He also went as far as to apologise for his own performance on the gantry.
Neville explained: “I think they all walked off thinking ‘we’re ok here we got away without making a mistake’. That was the sort of type of game. It was really disappointing.
“I apologise for my co-commentary actually, I think I let it get to me. I was boring on there as well, drab as well. Honestly, the whole game.”
United boss Ruben Amorim was also asked about the lack of intensity during his post-match interview.
The Portuguese pointed to both sides’ struggles, admitting: “If you look at the moment of both teams, we are not fighting for titles and that changes the game completely.
“The feeling of winning and not being able to lose one point – that feeling is not here. As the coach, it is hard to say that.
“We need to fight for big things. If we do, then the feeling will be completely different.”
Neville appeared to agree with Amorim’s comments before launching into a rant aimed at the ‘robotic’ positioning of the players.
Sky SportsNeville apologised for his co-commentary before calling out an ‘illness in the game’[/caption]
Sky SportsAmorim blamed the struggles of the two teams for the game’s lack of intensity[/caption]
The pundit exclaimed: “I get what he’s saying about it being this part in the season, about City and United being in a difficult moment.
“But this robotic nature of not leaving our positions, being micro-managed to within an inch of our lives, not having any freedom to take a risk, to go and try to win a football match is becoming an illness in the game. It’s a disease in the game.
“I think, ultimately, Pep Guardiola and his teams over the years, that’s what his teams do, but we’re seeing poor imitations of that across the board now.
“United’s goalkeeper rolling his foot on the ball and waiting for things to happen, that’s not it. That’s not what this club is, that’s not what we do here. Liverpool don’t do that.
“You’ve got to be a top team with tempo in your play, rhythm in your play, get the ball moving, shift it quickly.”
He continued: “I think, from a United perspective, I get why he’s gone deep, into a low block, but that’s what we’ve seen from Jose Mourinho, it’s what we’ve seen with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it’s what we’ve seen with Erik ten Hag.
“They’ve all gone in with the intention of playing high press, high energy football but all end up going to a low block in big games.
“I do understand why Ruben Amorim has done that today with the players he’s got. He hasn’t got the players to adapt.
“They need five new players, Manchester United straight away, before they even think about the rest of it.
“The three up front are not good enough and the two wing-backs are not good enough. So they need to serve him with five players who are good enough in this system to be able to play a system he wants.”
United made just two additions during the January transfer window, the first since Amorim’s appointment earlier in the campaign.
Defenders Patrick Dorgu and Ayden Heaven were both signed by the club, but are aged just 20 and 18 respectively.
Sky SportsThe former United star called on the club to make five signings immediately[/caption]
Neville also remained frustrated by the lack of ‘excitement’ on display in the derby.
He concluded his rant by revealing: “The game today really was quite depressing for me because I think we’re seeing a lot of these types of games and the Premier League is about excitement, it’s about thrill, it’s about risk and there was nothing like that in that game today.”
The result leaves United 13th in the table with seven matches remaining.
Amorim’s side remain 15 points adrift of the top four following the draw, whilst they are 14 behind City in fifth.
