Neville warns Carrick over late defensive subs after United squander lead at Everton

Manchester United were held to a 2-2 draw at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday, surrendering a late lead for the second time in three Premier League games and prompting a sharp rebuke from Gary Neville over Michael Carrick’s substitution decisions.

United had looked set for a comfortable win after Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring early in the second half, slotting past Jordan Pickford after driving in from the right. Benjamin Sesko then headed home to restore United’s advantage at 2-1 in the 88th minute, only for Ainsley Maitland-Niles to stun the hosts with an outrageous long-range strike deep into stoppage time to earn Everton a share of the points.

Neville’s sharpest criticism was directed at Carrick’s decision to withdraw both Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot with approximately five minutes remaining while United were protecting a one-goal lead. Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, the former United captain drew an unflattering parallel with Carrick’s predecessors. “Ruben Amorim and Erik ten Hag used to change their back four a lot as well,” Neville said. “You can’t be changing your back four. United have got a back four of Shaw, Dalot, Maguire and Lisandro Martinez and they’ve not got much behind that. So you can’t really change your back four at 1-0 or 2-1.”

Neville also raised broader concerns about United’s defensive vulnerability, noting that the side has now conceded six goals in their opening three league matches. “I think conceding goals is going to chase them and hunt them down the road,” he said. “Teams think they’ve got a chance against them. They lacked that killer instinct — it’s not going full throttle when you’ve got a team down, putting them away.”

He was equally critical of United’s failure to kill the game off before Everton’s equaliser, arguing the visitors were complacent after taking the lead. “From 1-0 up to 1-1 they let Everton back in the game,” Neville said. “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.”

The result leaves United with four points from three Premier League games. They opened the season with a 2-0 defeat at Hull City before beating Ipswich Town 5-2 last weekend. Both of Everton’s goals on Sunday were high-quality strikes, but Neville’s concern is that the pattern of conceding late — and the personnel decisions that may contribute to it — risks becoming a recurring problem under Carrick.