Manchester United secured a much-needed 2-0 victory at the weekend against Sunderland at Old Trafford.
Brief respite
The victory took Ruben Amorim’s side into the top half of the table and they are now three points off of fifth place.
Speaking before the match versus The Black Cats, Amorim claimed that some of his players were listening to pundits’ criticism rather than his own instruction.
When defending his 3-4-3 system in the pre-match press conference he stated that, “my players, I guarantee you, they are listening to all the opinions and they are putting that inside because we are not winning games. They have to believe in me. So my biggest problem is that my players believe in you guys when you say the problem of our team is the system.”
Gary Neville criticism
The former United defender was hardly sympathetic to Amorim after the victory over Sunderland and criticised the comments while speaking on Sky Sports.
Neville responded to Amorim’s words by asserting, “if pundits are getting into your head then you shouldn’t be playing for the club.”
The former England international recalled his own experiences as a young player breaking through by claiming, “do people not remember Alan Hanson criticising us when we broke in as young kids saying that you can’t win anything with kids. That was the greatest centre-back of all time at that moment talking about us as if we were, you know, inferior and nowhere near good enough.”
Neville also stated that the failings of the players are very much on them and they need to have broad enough shoulders to handle the criticism.
He went on, “did they not think that we got criticised during our football careers. I’m sorry you’re playing for Manchester United – it comes with the territory, you’ve got to step up.”
Neville explained, “they’ve been hopeless in the system. If it’s not the system, then the players are a problem, the manager is a problem, the whole thing’s a problem if you’re losing football matches to the level that they’ve been doing.”
The former defender also asserted that there seemed to be a lack of accountability in the United dressing room in comparison with his days as a player. He claimed that players apologised to each other after a defeat and he is unsure if that goes on in the current side.
He concluded, “I think they just need to concentrate on doing their jobs and doing it well and winning football matches. The only thing that’s going to shut anybody up is winning football matches and they’ve not won anywhere near enough.”
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
