Neville praises Carrick for adapting where Amorim failed as Baleba and Santos impress in Leeds draw

Manchester United drew 1-1 at Elland Road on Sunday, with Bryan Mbeumo’s opener cancelled out by Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s equaliser, stretching the club’s winless run to six matches. Yet for Gary Neville, the performance offered a rare source of encouragement under interim manager Michael Carrick.

Carrick handed Carlos Baleba his first Premier League start of the season and recalled Andrey Santos to the top-flight starting XI for the first time since the defeat to Hull, pairing the two in central midfield. The decision drew immediate praise from Neville, who believes the combination should now become a fixture.

“I actually think Baleba and Santos did a decent job in there today,” Neville said. “You’d have said at the start of the season ‘who is going to be your two?’ — that would have been your last two. You’d have said Mainoo, you’d have definitely said Tielemans or Mainoo in there. Maybe them two could be the way forward because the defence is not good enough. Baleba and Santos do protect it, and they need protecting.”

For Neville, the significance of the selection went beyond the players chosen. He drew a pointed contrast with the approach of Carrick’s predecessor, Ruben Amorim, who faced sustained criticism for leaving United’s defence exposed and declining to alter his system despite the results.

“What Michael Carrick has done today is he’s adjusted; he’s adapted,” Neville explained. “If you look back 12 months, how many games did we do together under Ruben Amorim? We watched a lot of games and he never adjusted. He kept Bruno and Casemiro in there. You kept thinking ‘just adjust, you’ve got to adapt’. He said he’d obviously die in a ditch over his system.”

Neville acknowledged that Carrick’s setup came with its own compromises — United operated without a conventional centre-forward for stretches, with Amad and Mbeumo tracking back to defensive positions — but argued the pragmatism was justified given the squad’s defensive fragility.

“He doesn’t want to play no centre forwards at times, which at times we had no centre forwards today,” Neville added. “But he’s adjusted, he’s adapted, he’s made them more competitive today and he’s got a performance out of them that’s a lot better.”

Baleba arrived at Old Trafford as a summer signing and had seen limited top-flight action before Sunday, while Santos had been absent from Premier League duty for three consecutive matches. Their shared experience in European competition, however, appears to have given Carrick the confidence to trust them together at a critical moment in the season.