It's a lot more than coaching, if it was just "coaching" then Ten Hag wouldn't have had them out running. They've been read the riot act, deservedly so.
Gary Neville - Pundit
- Thread starter Jamie Shawcross
- Start date
It's more than coaching. There was a change in energy, attitude, desire before you even get to the footballing ability and it all happened within the space of 1 week.
Since Brentford
- Dropped certain players
- Signed new ones
- Showed them the standards he expects
- Started players who do what he asks
- Got a tune out of certain players
- More time on the training pitch
- Wins have bred confidence
Good management and coaching. Unsurprisingly Neville is puzzled about it.
Gary needs to stop with trying to be balanced BS…..
I will never understand the amount of ridicule he gets on this forum for saying stuff most of us are also thinking . No amount of coaching can explain what’s happened to this lot in 3 weeks
Except it's literally been explained quite well a few posts above..
It amazes me the degree of vitriol he gets for innocuous comments. Do people seriously want Paddy Crerand style commentary on sky for Utd games?
Even more unfamiliar to him now that the manager was hired based on his achievements and potential, not connections to the club.
Watched his comments on Sky and thought they were spot on. The one with Martin Tyler, and the other with the other pundits.
Except that when he says that he can’t understand what has happened in 3 weeks it’s a way of saying just how incredible the change has been. United have gone from looking like amateur footballers to beating two of the top teams & looking insanely compact within 3 weeks which just doesn’t happen . There’s really no agenda here
For sure Neville isn't a fool, if anything not understanding what he meant makes few look like fools.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Yeh, coaching is the reason we have improved since Brentford? So, are you saying 1 week of coaching changed the teams fortunes? When he had 6 weeks of Pre season coaching?
- Dropped certain players - This isnt coaching is it?
- Signed new ones - Eriksen, Lisandro started the Brighton and Brentford game too
- Showed them the standards he expects - So he didnt show this over pre season?
- Started players who do what he asks - Same as above
- Got a tune out of certain players - same as above
- More time on the training pitch - 1 week > 6 weeks ?
- Wins have bred confidenc
I don't mind Nev at all, but his wanking over Arsenal yesterday and his agenda he was desperate to push about Jesus being a reincarnation of Messi, was a tad OTT.
I think you're taking it a bit too literal. To me, Neville is giving Ten Hag a massive compliment because it's truly a seismic shift in effort and performance from just a few changes.
What is they really mean is we've finally hired the right man for the job.
I think Gary was a pro-Pochettino guy last season and was part of the media narrative that were pushing for Pochettino, so him being stumped by the turnaround in results under ETH is a good sign. I get the feeling he was lining up that we shouldn’t have gone for unproven ETH and gone for proven Pochettino if the results didn’t improve that much.
Yeah he was definitely setting this up, along with constantly bringing up Martinez height until he couldn’t. He’s even standing there after watching the Arsenal game saying he still doesn’t think Utd will get top 4. He won’t be long piling on if results turn imo.
Edit the constant talk about Jesus bullying our CBS was a lead up to Martinez lacking physicality if we dropped points as well. Clear as day
It is just the current culture we are in , not just football. Everyone demands that other people share the same opinions as themselves , if not they are the enemy.
Agreeing to disagree is no longer a thing , if you are not lock step with the group think of the day then you are dead to them.
He wasn’t even that bad yesterday - it’s annoying how he ‘hides’ his United bias by essentially becoming anti United when he commentates but it wasn’t that bad yesterday.
That was the first time I was really annoyed by Neville, well that and writing de Gea off 3 months into his debut season.
Otherwise I don’t pay much attention to what he says.
But the height thing… and he explained it by telling stories from the 90’s about his own shortcomings as a CB who lacked height, that genuinely pissed me off. He was a shite and soft CB whilst Martinez is anything but.
Why would Gary Neville the CB would be any sort of a barometer of performance in this position is beyond me, that was stupid.
He knows exactly why. But he doesn't want to call out precious English players.
I'm confused here. There seems to be two conflicting comments.
1) If Neville was using that to exclaim the improvement then yeah, no issues with that. End of discussion.
2) However, if you saying Neville is also true that we've seen unheard of improvement/it doesn't 'make sense' then that's just wrong, which is why I quoted and was agreeing with @horsechoker's reasons.
First off to start with, I love what ETH has done so far, I rate his ability and I am definitely enjoying this as a Utd fan.
We have been good and it has been a great turnaround but is it really that miraculous? These sorts of turns of form happen all the time in this league (most noticeably with the 'new manager bounce' and Ole's first few months here being a prime example). It can happen much easier when you have a group of players, who at their core do have quality and talent. Not to mention the fact we have also bought a few good players too (£200m worth of talent). We have been a shambles but it's not like ETH is working with relegation candidates. Even with our horrendous season last year, we were still 6th. So yes it is imo down to 'coaching' and I use that term broadly to what a manager should be doing i.e not specifically just on the training pitch. I won't say the turnaround has been 'easy' but I wouldn't say it's 'hard'. Just because our last two managers failed spectacularly, it doesn't make what ETH has done so far to be some return of the dead business. Let's not forget it's also only been 4 games. Playing compact and counter attacking with our squad quality is not exactly rare or 'hard' for us; again Ole, a coach with no quality did it easily.
I'm not bashing ETH btw. I support entirely what he's doing but it's the most 'obvious' and effective strategy he could have taken after the first two games. He still has to do it of course and I'd say bloody well done to that but "I've got no idea what happened, since the Brentford game" is hyperbole if the intention is genuine bafflement as that would suggest he thought our form and players were unfixable/was never going to or could have been improved on.
To be fair I blame @Hansi Fick because I haven't seen the original video so it may be taken out of context but even then it has initiated some decent discussion
Last edited:
It's obvious. The salbutamol shipment finally arrived.
I get what you're saying, teams often reach a breaking point and can turn it around from there when the needs must. It's not unnatural.I'm confused here. There seems to be two conflicting comments.
1) If Neville was using that to exclaim the improvement then yeah, no issues with that. End of discussion.
2) However, if you saying Neville is also true that we've seen unheard of improvement/it doesn't 'make sense' then that's just wrong, which is why I quoted and was agreeing with @horsechoker's reasons.
First off to start with, I love what ETH has done so far, I rate his ability and I am definitely enjoying this as a Utd fan.
We have been good and it has been a great turnaround but is it really that miraculous? These sorts of turns of form happen all the time in this league (most noticeably with the 'new manager bounce' and Ole's first few months here being a prime example). It can happen much easier when you have a group of players, who at their core do have quality and talent. Not to mention the fact we have also bought a few good players too (£200m worth of talent). We have been a shambles but it's not like ETH is working with relegation candidates. Even with our horrendous season last year, we were still 6th. So yes it is imo down to 'coaching' and I use that term broadly to what a manager should be doing i.e not specifically just on the training pitch. I won't say the turnaround has been 'easy' but I wouldn't say it's 'hard'. Just because our last two managers failed spectacularly, it doesn't make what ETH has done so far to be some return of the dead business. Let's not forget it's also only been 4 games. Playing compact and counter attacking with our squad quality is not exactly rare or 'hard' for us; again Ole, a coach with no quality did it easily.
I'm not bashing ETH btw. I support entirely what he's doing but it's the most 'obvious' and effective strategy he could have taken after the first two games. He still has to do it of course and I'd say bloody well done to that but "I've got no idea what happened, since the Brentford game" is hyperbole if the intention is genuine bafflement as that would suggest he thought our form and players were unfixable/was never going to or could have been improved on.
To be fair I blame @Hansi Fick because I haven't seen the original video so it may be taken out of context but even then it has initiated some decent discussion
I think it's just in the context of it all, the manner of the defeats and then the run on the back of this. It all seems a little surreal that we were so low only a few weeks ago.
the impact of the Brentford game and how the players have reacted resulted in that great win against Liverpool
We havent been great and could have drawn with Southampton, Leicester and Arsenal
what you are seeing is a more defiant United, more resilient and the confidence is growing
players like Dalot are loving being part of a team and defensive United and he, along with Varane is playing the best football of their United careers.....
to me it comes down to two things really - your values as a player/team and the standards you keep as non-negotiatable
ETH is instilling his values, setting his standards and the players are responding well
We havent been great and could have drawn with Southampton, Leicester and Arsenal
what you are seeing is a more defiant United, more resilient and the confidence is growing
players like Dalot are loving being part of a team and defensive United and he, along with Varane is playing the best football of their United careers.....
to me it comes down to two things really - your values as a player/team and the standards you keep as non-negotiatable
ETH is instilling his values, setting his standards and the players are responding well
I can't believe so many people in this thread are getting worked up about this. It's just an expression/idiom. Maybe it's lost in translation.
Note: I can believe it. It's an expression. Get it?
Why so angry? He's fecking right. No one seen this turn around.
Gary Neville could say Ten Hag is a fantastic coach and people would moan that he didn't say Generational Coach.
absolutely feck all wrong with what he said. If you told me that we won 4 consecutive games after Brentford, including 2 against Liverpool and Arsenal id of had no clue what the feck had changed either.
I’d like to think a pundit who is paid to give his expert views would have some sort of clue?
Don´t get why people get so worked up with Nev, he is on TV it´s his job to get reactions.
I did, Ten Hag is grandmaster sexay
It's literally impossible for Neville to please everyone.
Too biased towards United
Too impartial
Too opinionated
Not opinionated enough
Defensive of people he knows personally
Throwing his colleagues under the bus - what a dick
If you were Gary Neville - ie smart enough to realise this - how long ago do you think you would have stopped caring what people think?
Too biased towards United
Too impartial
Too opinionated
Not opinionated enough
Defensive of people he knows personally
Throwing his colleagues under the bus - what a dick
If you were Gary Neville - ie smart enough to realise this - how long ago do you think you would have stopped caring what people think?
Ah shit pal you're right. Maybe next time he can look into his Crystal Ball.
Think people are reading too much into his comment. We have all said at times 'How did that happen' not wanting someone to go into a great debate about it. It is a throwaway comment. He knows why we have improved.
Or analyse a month worth of football that has already happened?
Do you need a crystal ball to watch what’s literally happening in front of you? What faulty crystal balls are you buying?
He does that already. You've jumped on him for saying he couldn't imagine this turn around. No one could. He can't predict the future. He's said feck all wrong.
They should have cast neville has visreys.
Don't think he said anything wrong, after last season how many of us really thought this team had the mentality to turn things round and beat Liverpool after that Brentford game and win 4 in a row?
As for his commentary on Sunday, that was terrible trying so hard to praise Arsenal despite being 3-1 down
As for his commentary on Sunday, that was terrible trying so hard to praise Arsenal despite being 3-1 down
No, I’m jumping in him saying he hasn’t a clue how it happened.
No need to make stuff up. Nobody is saying he should have seen a turnaround, it’s him standing there shrugging his shoulders as if it’s some kind of miracle that’s the problem