Neville brands Manchester United 'an absolute disgrace' after Fulham stalemate

Gary Neville delivered a scathing verdict on Manchester United after they were held to a 1-1 draw by bottom-of-the-table Fulham at Craven Cottage, labelling the performance ‘an absolute disgrace’ and accusing the squad of walking through large stretches of the match.

Matheus Cunha rescued a point for United with a deflected strike in the 89th minute, cancelling out a Lisandro Martinez own goal that had given the Cottagers the lead. Despite taking 29 shots, United were unable to find a winner against a side that started the day rooted to the foot of the Premier League table.

The result extends a damaging week for manager Michael Carrick, whose side have now lost to Manchester City and Brighton in the League Cup before failing to beat the division’s bottom club in the league.

Neville, who was commentating on the game, said United played the ‘worst 15 minutes of football’ he could remember witnessing since he first started following the club as a five-year-old. After the final whistle, he elaborated on the criticism.

‘I was purely referring to the fact that they walked around the pitch,’ Neville said. ‘I’ve never seen a Manchester United team walk, out of possession, as much as that. Michael said he was happy with the team’s energy — Michael’s got to stop defending them. I get why he’s defending them, he’s loyal and wants his players to work for him. I’ve never seen a Manchester United team, for 15 minutes, walk around out of possession as much as that. No alertness, no liveliness, no sort of on your toes.’

Neville also identified specific tactical problems, pointing to the lack of defensive contribution from United’s attacking players as a structural flaw Carrick must address.

‘There needs to be a rebalance,’ he continued. ‘Mbeumo and Rashford are too wide and too high, they don’t narrow and get back in. You’ve then got Tielemans and Mainoo in midfield who are a little bit one-paced, and Bruno [Fernandes] at times floats around and Cunha floats around a little bit. These five or six players are all better with the ball than without the ball.’

Neville was unsparing in his overall assessment, reserving his harshest language for what he described as a collective failure of effort. ‘Very rarely do I say that a team doesn’t work hard or is lacking in effort because that’s the ultimate criticism you can give a group of players,’ he said. ‘For 60 minutes, Manchester United were an absolute disgrace. Nowhere near good enough without the ball. Nowhere near good enough.’