Neville warns Carrick over defensive frailties after Man Utd surrender lead twice at Everton

Manchester United dropped two points at Goodison Park on Sunday after Ainsley Maitland-Niles struck in the 96th minute to earn Everton a 2-2 draw, leaving Michael Carrick’s side with just four points from their opening three Premier League games.

Gary Neville used his podcast to deliver a pointed warning to Carrick, drawing a direct comparison with his predecessors Ruben Amorim and Erik ten Hag — both of whom, Neville argued, made a habit of rotating their back four at damaging moments. United conceded twice through long-range strikes, with Tyrique George scoring the first before Maitland-Niles completed the comeback deep into stoppage time.

“I don’t think it’s going to go away and that’s my big fear,” Neville said. “I think conceding goals is going to chase them and hunt them down the road and I don’t know how Michael deals with it because he’s got his best back four on the pitch.”

Neville was particularly baffled by Carrick’s decision to withdraw both Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot with five minutes remaining while United were protecting a 2-1 lead. He argued that United’s depth at full-back makes such changes a luxury the club cannot afford. “You can’t be changing your back four,” he said. “United have got a back four of Shaw, Dalot, Maguire and Lisandro Martinez and they’ve not got much behind that.”

The former United captain also criticised the team’s failure to kill the game off when dominant, pointing to a lack of cutting edge that allowed Everton back into a contest they had largely lost in the first half. “Everton weren’t at it at all in that first half — United were the better team and didn’t have that killer instinct up top,” Neville said.

Carrick acknowledged the defensive problems after the final whistle, though he was measured in his assessment. “Obviously, we can’t ignore it. We need to concede fewer goals to give us a better chance of winning games,” he said. “There’s been two strikes from distance really, two really good strikes from their point of view. Sometimes they fly in the top corner and more often than not they probably don’t.”

With six goals conceded in three games, United’s defensive record is already a concern as Carrick attempts to establish his own identity at Old Trafford. The manner of Sunday’s collapse — twice leading, twice pegged back — will only intensify scrutiny on a squad that has yet to show it can manage a game out when under pressure.