Wednesday 18 September 2019

Gary Neville's damning verdict on Man United...and he also accuses Liverpool after Anfield stalemate

Jurgen Klopp and (inset) Gary Neville
Jurgen Klopp and (inset) Gary Neville
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho saw his side draw 0-0 with Liverpool
Kevin Palmer

Kevin Palmer

Gary Neville believes Manchester United have no chance of winning the Premier League if manager Jose Mourinho continues to use the tactics he deployed in Saturday's 0-0 draw against Liverpool at Anfield.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was among those who suggested Mourinho and United used negative tactics in a game that failed to live up to his billing, with the two managers trading negative sentiments in their post match interviews.

Former United defender Neville believes both managers should have concerns about a game that ambled towards a stalemate, with his views on Mourinho's approach less than complimentary.

"They have to be better than that away from home if they want to challenge for the title," Neville told the Sky Sports podcast.

"In the first half I thought that United, to be fair, were definitely different to a year ago, there was more intent.

"The second half drifted back towards a year ago, I have to say, where Liverpool were the only team pressing. United's intent and quality in the second half were nowhere near good enough. They started to resign themselves to a draw.

"I expected more confidence and authority from them on the counter-attack, but they didn't get anything going. It wasn't good enough."

His verdict on Liverpool was equally damning, as he suggested Klopp and his players showed signs of fear as they failed to push for a winner in the second half.

"I'm sure the headline out of this game will be that Jose has parked the bus," he said. "Liverpool put in a good performance, but Jurgen Klopp could have turned it up in the second half if he had wanted to.

"He could have taken off (Emre) Can, (Jordan) Henderson or (Georginio) Wijnaldum and brought (Philippe) Coutinho back into the midfield three and made it a more attacking team and taken more chances.

"He dared not lose. They were trying to attack and be positive but they were still measured in their positivity. There wasn't that what I would call Liverpool gung ho, that wasn't Liverpool today.

"They didn't want to leave the counter-attack open. They were making sure United didn't cut through them.

"So whilst Liverpool were the better team in terms of performance, it wasn't with reckless abandon that we have sometimes seen from Jurgen Klopp because he's not in a situation at the moment where he can afford to lose this game.

"That's what we saw in the second half, when they were pushing but they weren't pushing as hard as we have seen them in the past."

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