While Manchester United is showing serious sluggishness at the beginning of the season, the team’s legend expressed his disappointment with the players recruited this summer.
British media Daily Mail reported on the 18th (Korean time), “Gary Neville shed tears over Manchester United’s signing.”
Manchester United, who advanced to the UEFA Champions League and won the Carabao Cup (EFL Cup) last season with the appointment of manager Eric Tun Haag, received great expectations right up until the start of this season. In the summer transfer market, they were evaluated as having the potential to challenge for the title this season by bringing in Mason Mount, Andre Onana, Rasmus Høirun, and Sofien Amrabat.
However, expectations for Manchester United began to fade at the end of the transfer market. The problem occurred within the team, not in the transfer market. First, performance issues and injuries to key players hindered the team. Although they won the opening game against Wolverhampton, they were significantly behind Wolverhampton in terms of performance, and in the previous game, the second round against Tottenham, except for a brief advantage in the first half, they were behind Tottenham throughout the game and lost 0-2.
Afterwards, they won 3-2 against Nottingham, but they showed signs of instability by conceding two goals early in the game. Then, they lost 1-3 in the fourth round of the league away to Arsenal, which dampened their mood, and even the home game against Brighton. They lost and are experiencing their worst slump at the beginning of the season.
British media and Manchester United fans poured out strong criticism after losing to Brighton at home, which had been undefeated so far. There was criticism of underperforming players such as defenders Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof, goalkeeper Andre Onana, and midfielder Casemiro, and even doubts about Coach Turn Haag’s tactics.
Meanwhile, Manchester United legend Neville made a statement as if he had already predicted this outcome after seeing the players Manchester United recruited this season.
The Daily Mail reported Neville’s opinion, saying, “Neville looked at Manchester United’s summer recruitment and criticized the new players, saying he ‘never thought for a moment’ that they were good enough players to challenge Manchester City and Arsenal.”
According to reports, Neville criticized this summer’s signings, saying, “There were concerns바카라 that the players they brought in would not improve from last season. I never thought the players Manchester United brought in would challenge Manchester City and Arsenal.”
He continued, “Manchester United would have needed Harry Kane and Declan Rice, but they don’t have the money to sign such players. As a fan, when I saw Brighton play, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t I have been really surprised?'” He assessed that he should have been brought in.
Neville pointed out that this situation was not due to coach Turn Haag. He said: “What the fans really want is a change in ownership of the club. I don’t think the players are not committed. I think there has to be a sporting project behind it that can allow Manchester United to bring in a group of players.” It was explained that this was because there was little investment in relation to the acquisition of the club.
However, contrary to what Neville pointed out, Manchester United invested a lot of money in signing quite a few players this season. It is reported that a total of 200 million pounds (about 328.7 billion won) was invested to bring in players such as Hoirun, Mount, Onana, and Amrabat. Since this amount is high in the Premier League, it seems difficult for fans to accept Neville’s point that Manchester United did not invest properly.
Meanwhile, as criticism of Manchester United continues to increase, unless coach Turn Haag can find a solution and turn the situation around, the burden on the newly recruited players is expected to increase further.
Mark Goldbridge, the presenter of a popular British football program, likes Onana when he replaces David de Gea, but this is a real mistake. Last season, too many people dismissed De Gea as the team’s problem. “He was not a problem for the team,” he pointed out.
“This season, Manchester United gave up 10 goals in 5 games. The average is 2 goals conceded. De Gea, on the other hand, kept 17 clean sheets last season and conceded only nine goals at home. “But this season, Manchester United has already conceded five goals at home,” he said, raising questions about Oh Nana’s ability to save.
“Casemiro looked like he was 45,” said former Premier League striker Gabriel Agbonlahor, adding, “The energy levels of Lisandro and Lindelof were similar. Lisandro tried to block Gross’s shot, but was fooled by him and ended up being deceived. “We conceded a goal. If Maguire had done something like that, we would have heard endless words like, ‘This is terrible, please exclude him from the starting lineup,'” he said, criticizing the poor performance of the defense and midfielders.
With even the legend giving up his expectations for Manchester United, attention is being paid to whether Manchester United can bounce back quickly to overturn Neville’s opinion.