Manchester United legend Gary Neville has insisted that Ruben Amorim has made the club “a lot worse”, following last Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.
United slipped to a fifth defeat in seven games since Amorim’s appointment, courtesy of a second-half brace from Jean-Philippe Mateta.
The result left United languishing in 13th place in the Premier League table.
The Red Devils have struggled for consistency under Amorim, as the Portuguese coach goes about trying to implement his preferred 3-4-3 formation.
Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, Neville predicted that there’s a lot more pain in store for United before the end of the season.
Neville also explained that United’s troubles could spill over into the next campaign, hindering their chances of making any meaningful progress.
The former England international said, “I thought it would get better when Ruben Amorim came in. I thought the enthusiasm and the new system, I thought they’d buy into it the players, and we’d see a bounce.”
“We’ve seen the absolute opposite. It’s got a lot worse and that’s surprising.”
“But there’s going to be a lot more pain towards the end of the season and it is going to be damaging.”
Neville added, “They’re obviously going to stick with Ruben Amorim, but the more you lose, the more difficult it is to convince the players of the idea. The idea that he talked about in the early days.”
“You need the players to buy into it, but if they lose with it, and they keep getting criticised, the spotlight comes on them more and the fans are leaving unhappy.”
“You can’t keep losing. It will depress the thoughts of the players, to the point whereby they’ll lose faith with the idea.”
“It’ll damage the start of next season. He has to do something. He can’t change his approach because he’s died in a ditch on it. And rightly so. I think he’s lost more games at Manchester United since he’s come than he lost in the last 75 at Sporting.”
United are back in action on Friday when they host Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester City at Old Trafford for a fourth-round FA Cup clash.
Featured image by Carl Recine via Getty Images
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Derick Kinoti
Derick Kinoti is a football writer at The Peoples Person who has covered Manchester United and the game extensively for many years. He is a keen analyst with expertise in SEO and journalism standards. Derick is convinced Wayne Rooney is the true GOAT and won’t hear otherwise!
