Manchester United legend Gary Neville has claimed that new head coach Ruben Amorim took notice of several poor habits regularly exhibited by his players following the team’s 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town on Sunday.
Marcus Rashford and Omari Hutchinson traded first-half goals at Portman Road, to ensure the spoils were shared between the two sides.
The result left United in 12th position, six points adrift of the Champions League spaces.
There were some positives to take from the match but it remains abundantly clear that Amorim has a humongous job on his hands to get the current crop of players to start performing at a consistently high level.
In his post-match comments, Amorim warned that there will be a long period of pain and suffering before things eventually get better.
The Portuguese coach also assured supporters that he will stick to his principles as he seeks to make United a competitive outfit once again.
Speaking on Sky Sports [via Manchester Evening News], Neville insisted that against Ipswich, United were far less organised, looked poorly coached and failed to match their hosts’ appetite for all three points – three things that according to him, Amorim saw.
Neville said on Sky, “The red flags that were there yesterday would have been there probably for the last few months and the last season and a half of a team that are very difficult to actually like watching.”
“And I say that with respect because I genuinely do believe what Ruben Amorim said at the end of the game. No football player goes out onto the pitch and wants to lose or doesn’t want to win or, work hard or do well.”
“They don’t want criticism. But you watch them play, even yesterday, the new system, and you look at Ipswich, who are very near the bottom of the league, who look more organized, better coached. They look like they’ve got more appetite for the game, more enthusiasm.”
“And that’s a constant and has been a constant, not just obviously on Sunday, but a constant for the last year-and-a-half, two years, three years. So we got to a situation where these group of players, to be honest with you, have created a pattern for themselves and become what they are.”
Neville added, “And not just a red flag yesterday, because the same things that we’ve seen in the last six to eight months, ten months, we saw yesterday with Ruben Amorim being the manager, he saw it as well.”
“He [Amorim] obviously knew how big a job this was, but he’ll have recognized it yesterday.”
United return to Europa League action on Thursday, when they host FK Bodø/Glimt at Old Trafford.
Featured image Richard Pelham 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!
