Gary Neville offered up some stinging criticism of Manchester United as he claimed that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side ‘are nowhere near good enough’ to compete for major titles.
United were beaten 4-2 by Leicester on Saturday, with Neville lamenting the lack of organisation in the team and their inability to cope against any ‘half decent’ team.
Former United defender Neville also stated that the team are extremely weak in terms of pressing the opposition.
Gary Neville believes that the pressure on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will now intensify
Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville said: ‘They are nowhere near good enough. The moment they start to play half decent teams they’re going to struggle.
‘The team performances have been so shoddy all season. There have been some great goals but the overall performances have been shoddy.
‘It’s been scrappy and scruffy to watch, so when you play against a team that’s got an organisation to them, a methodology, you’re going to get pulled apart and that’s what happening.
‘They got pulled apart by Everton, pulled apart by Villa, pulled apart by Villarreal. Today, Leicester, half decent team, good team.
United were beaten 4-2 away to Leicester on Saturday as their inconsistent start continued
‘They’re nowhere near good enough out of possession, they’re the weakest out of those at the top of the league without a shadow of a doubt in terms of general pressing – they don’t press.’
Despite the high-profile return of Cristiano Ronaldo and other major signings such as Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane, United have struggled for consistency in the early stages of the campaign.
As well as Leicester, United have also been beaten by Young Boys, West Ham and Aston Villa this season, while they drew against Everton and Southampton.
Neville also believes that there is a lack of balance to some of Solskjaer’s team selections.
Against Leicester, for example, Neville felt that Solskjaer selected a side that contained too many creative or attacking players, which left the defence exposed.
Neville felt the United side that faced Leicester had too many creative and attacking players
He said: ‘We’ve seen the team that’s been picked today (at Leicester) with Greenwood, Sancho, Ronaldo, Pogba and Fernandes in. Five of them. I wouldn’t want to be a defender in that team.’
Solskjaer has been in charge of United for almost three years and has yet to win a trophy, with Neville adamant that pressure will now start to build on the Norwegian.
‘100 per cent, the pressure will build on the manager, the pressure will build on the players,’ he said.
‘They won’t do anything with the manager, ultimately the club are stable in that respect of what’s happened in the last 10 years, they recognise they’re going to go through these moments.’
As well as the manager, Neville says the pressure will start to build on the United players
United took the lead against Leicester through a superb goal from Mason Greenwood, but Youri Tielemans equalised before Caglar Soyuncu put the Foxes ahead in the second half.
Marcus Rashford, on as a substitute, levelled for United, but Jamie Vardy and Patson Daka proceeded to score for Leicester.
United’s next game is at home to Atalanta in the Champions League before they host Liverpool in the Premier League next weekend in a game where there will be much scrutiny of Solskjaer’s side.
Solskjaer expressed his ‘disappointment’ with United’s ‘sloppy play’ and said that his team were not worthy of continuing their league record 29-game away unbeaten run after conceding four goals.
Solskjaer said: ‘When you look at the game after and the four goals we conceded were all very poor.
‘When you concede four goals and play like we did, we don’t deserve to continue that run. Definitely, that performance was very below par and not good enough.
Leicester fought back to win 4-2 and end United’s 29-game unbeaten run away from home
‘We started with a very good goal from Mason and we were knocking on the door to get another one. But sloppy play saw us concede that first goal.
‘That was disappointing. Second half was still ended to end but they created the better chances.
‘Two goals from set pieces is disappointing and of course, 10 seconds after you equalise…that shouldn’t happen.’
When asked about his decision to select Harry Maguire for the first time in three weeks, the United manager said: ‘I picked the team and Harry showed no reaction after what he has gone through.
‘For me, I hold my hands up if that doesn’t work out and sometimes it doesn’t. When we concede four it’s not great. I probably made a couple of bad decisions.’