Former English footballer Gary Neville blasted Manchester United and coach Ruben Amorim after the side played out a 1-1 draw against a struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers in a Premier League match on Tuesday.
Neville was particularly disappointed with Amorim’s decision to play back three against Wolves, which cost them two crucial points, and the English football pundit said, United went backwards because Amorim decided to revert to a back three.
“That was the baddest of the bad that. They weren’t just booed off at full-time. The fans waited in the stadium to continue to boo them,” he said on the Gary Neville podcast.
The Reds missed out on the chance to go fourth on the leaderboards and became the first side to drop points to Wolves since October after a run of 12 consecutive defeats as Amorim’s side were booed off by their own fans at Old Trafford.
Neville was surprised Amorim had not gone with the back four that earned Man United a 1-0 win over Newcastle at home on Boxing Day, given his only change was Zirkzee for the injured Mason Mount.
“They’ve gone backwards. I’m not quite sure why they have changed. Wolves have probably been the better team,” Neville was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
Neville felt Amorim’s choice of formation was to blame for the drop-off and questioned the Portuguese’s comments in a press conference when the head coach said he could not tweak the system because of media pressure.
Story continues below this ad
“He doesn’t need to say ‘I haven’t changed because of the media’ because then he’s telling us basically that the media is in his head. The reason he’s had to change is because the performance levels with the 3-4-3 have been so poor and the results have been appalling.”
“When I see that we go back [to three at the back] after five minutes tonight and I’m thinking, no, Ruben, why have you done that?. The manager has to look at that and think, I got that wrong. I complicated it,” Neville added.
Media pressure
Earlier, Amorim had said he abstained from changing formation earlier to ensure his players did not feel he was succumbing to media pressure.
“But when you (journalists) talk about changing the system all the time, I cannot change because the players will understand that I am changing because of you,” Amorim said after the Newcastle game.
Story continues below this ad
“When I came here last season, I understood that maybe I don’t have the players to play well in that system, but it was the beginning of the process. We are trying to build an identity. Today is a different moment. We don’t have a lot of players [so] we need to adapt, but I already know that they understand why we are changing.”
