Despite Sunday’s loss to Manchester City, Gary Neville remained upbeat about Manchester United.
After putting up a stronger fight than many anticipated, Man United lost to their neighbours at the weekend, their eleventh defeat this season.
With some aggressive play in the first half, Erik ten Hag’s team took the game to City and took the lead thanks to a brilliant shot from Marcus Rashford.
United managed to hold on until halftime, but City’s superiority paid off in the end, as goals from Phil Foden and Erling Haaland sealed the victory.
Gary Neville saw several bright spots in the performance, despite the fact that it was their third consecutive loss to their bitter rivals.
Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast, he said: “It’s the result everyone expected before the game but the Rashford goal early on just got me out of my seat.
“It just meant United had something to hold on to. It was a different Manchester United today.
“I think that, we’ve all been really critical of them in the last couple of months even when they’ve been winning and they’ve won quite a few games in the last month or two.
“But the way in which they’ve been conceding lots of chances, they’ve been so open, so easy to play against, has been startling to watch.
“Actually today, I thought they were a compact unit of 11 players, including the goalkeeper, that were really well drilled, well organised.
“There’s obviously a change that’s been made. They didn’t have a centre-forward, or they chose not to go with a centre-forward, Rashford who can play there was playing wide and they decided to go with McTominay and Fernandes in those positions.
“It’s a very different Erik ten Hag set-up today but one that was respectful of City.
“And one that actually at the end of the game leaves you in a position where when you’re trying to analyse a game you’re not sat here thinking they were a disgrace today.
“You’re not thinking they were a mess, you’re not thinking they were all over the place.
“You’re sat here thinking that they played against a world-class team and they were actually quite resilient and well drilled.”
The stats tell a different story though. United only managed to get one shot on target against City in the derby and didn’t see most of the possession.
The Red Devils struggled against Guardiola’s world class team but even after that, there was improvement in the team from recent matches.
Against Fulham and Nottingham Forest recently, United struggled in midfield but against City, they looked like they had a proper plan. That plan still couldn’t produce a result but you could argue United were up against a much better opposition in all departments.
