Speaking on his latest podcast, Gary Neville says Man Utd must learn to play like a team if they are to challenge for the title, and must win a trophy in the next 18 months.
Manchester United is an ‘odd bunch’ who ‘don’t play well enough as a team to win the Premier League title, claims Gary Neville.
A late penalty miss from Bruno Fernades on Saturday compounded United to a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford against Aston Villa for their first league loss of the season.
For Neville, United has plenty of individual quality but there is an unclear style of play and little to no cohesion that is required to win the Premier League.
“There was a lot of ‘Ole out’ talk on Saturday,” Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast. “The club has done that over the last eight or 10 years. It’s not worked. They will see this project through; I don’t like calling it a managerial reign project, but they will see this through.
“They’ve had great managers, world-class managers, international managers in the building, and it’s not worked for the club or the fans. The style of play, whatever it might be. However, it does seem at this moment that the dressing room is happy. But they’ve got to start becoming a team.
“I know what’s going to happen when I see Man City building up from the back. I know what’s going to happen at Liverpool. When Man Utd are building from the back or through midfield, I don’t know what’s coming next sometimes.”
He added: “I said it even when they were winning, even when Ronaldo scored, they don’t play well enough as a team to win this league in my view. They don’t play well enough as a team.
“I think you have to be a unit in and out of possession, and when you only deliver in moments, those moments won’t go for you in certain games. You need patterns of play, you need a way of playing, and at this moment in time I still see a group of individuals playing in moments, with some patterns and combinations at times, but still, a team where some are pretty new together -Cristiano Ronaldo, Raphael Varane, Jado Sancho- but they’ve got to come together as a team and start to define a style of play. Then you start to get results when you don’t play well.”
United is in a rough patch, even this early in the campaign, having lost three of their last four matches.
As well as a first league defeat in 2021-22 to Villa, courtesy of a goal from Kortney Hause, United was eliminated from the Carabao Cup at Old Trafford by West Ham and beaten in their opening Champions League group game against Young Boys.
Solskjaer is continuing to search for his first trophy as United boss and is now left fighting across three fronts.
On Monday, United sit fourth in the table on 13 points, one adrift of league leaders Liverpool, following their thrilling 3-3 draw away to Brentford.
