Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has criticised his former side after last weekend’s disappointing defeat to Aston Villa at home. The defeat is United’s third in just four games as they continue their inconsistent start to the season.
Aston Villa took the lead in the 88th minute from a corner but Manchester United were given an opportunity to spare their blushes moments after via the penalty spot. Bruno Fernandes missed the resulting spot-kick, leaving United with four wins, one draw, and one defeat from six games.
After finishing second this season, the expectation for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side is a proper title challenge but Neville has dismissed those aspirations with his latest comments.
“I said it, even when they were winning, even when Ronaldo scores, they don’t play well enough as a team to win this league, in my view, they don’t play well enough as a team,” he said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
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“I think that you have to be a unit in possession and out of possession and when you only deliver in moments, those moments won’t go for you in certain games.
“You need patterns of play, you need a way of playing. And I, at this moment in time, still see a group of individuals playing in moments with some patterns and combinations at times but still a team, some of them pretty new together, but they’ve got to come together as a team and start to define a style of play and then you start to get results when you don’t play well.
“I think the way they are at the moment, they’ll always have days like that yesterday, they’ll have patches of four, five games where they’ll only win two. Then they’ll go and win 15 on the bounce and be unbeaten away from home for I don’t know how long. That’s the type of team they are.”
Neville’s frustrations are shared with a large section of the faithful Manchester United support, with the slow build-up play remaining an issue for the Reds in the new campaign.
Solskjaer’s method has undoubtedly worked more than it hasn’t since he took over but there are growing concerns over his side’s ability to dominate a match.
