Manchester United are “broken” and have signed “God-like” players, says former star Neville
It was a tough night for Gary Neville as Liverpool tore their rivals to shreds at Anfield, and the club legend was not impressed, pointing to a bigger issue.
Gary Neville has described Manchester United as “broken on and off the pitch” after they were thrashed 4-0 by Liverpool at Anfield on Tuesday. Goals from Luis Diaz, Mohamed Salah (two) and Sadio Mané consigned United to another damaging defeat in their hunt for Champions League qualification.
Liverpool demoralise more than the current United players
Their great rivals went top of the Premier League meanwhile, with fellow title contenders Manchester City playing Brighton and Hove Albion on Wednesday.
Neville laid into his former club following the heavy defeat, saying on Sky Sports: “What Manchester United have done is brought players in with piano introductions like [Alexis] Sanchez, or ‘Pogback’ and all the big palaver around [Paul Pogba’s return from Juventus], the Cristiano [Ronaldo] one at the start of the season, they’ve elevated the player above the manager at the football club as well.
“You go to Liverpool, you go to Chelsea, you go to Manchester City, the manager is the primary figure at the football club. They’ve undermined managers at Manchester United over the last 10 years by basically elevating the players into this God-like status, and the players haven’t performed.
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United a ‘broken club on and off the pitch’
“My view is at this moment in time there are a lot of things, the players could do better, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the start of the season could have done better, Ralf Rangnick maybe could have done better, but fundamentally, the club is broken on and off the pitch.
“The stadium’s falling apart, the training ground is slipping to second rate compared to others, the owners are taking £25million a year out the club when actually the club needs investment, and it sets the culture badly from the top.”
Since 2003-04, there have been four instances of a player completing 100+ passes in a Premier League match against United. All four of them have been this season, with two of them being tonight (Thiago 105, Virgil van Dijk 106).
The Red Devils will look to bounce back in their crucial trip to top four rivals Arsenal on Saturday.