Why in gods name do you imagine he plays McFred?
Gary Neville - Pundit
- Thread starter Jamie Shawcross
- Start date
Thing is, the right type of striker can take a massive amount of pressure off the midfield. Somebody who can actually hold the ball high and constantly run the channels. Right now our opponent midfield can happily relax and concentrate on overwhelming our own midfield because there is little threat behind them. Nobody will hold the ball there and our runners will be coming from our midfield anyway.
I don't think Kane is that guy though.
Pep would have signed a possesion suited CM as well as RB (instead of AWB) by now. Ole didn't have to sign the likes of James and VDB and could jage gone for a CM who can pass if he cared so much about keep ball
I dunno, maybe the same reason he doesn't seem to talk about midfield control/possession and why he's never really targeted players for that.
Top teams don’t really control the game through midfield possession anymore though?
A lot of United old boys that were successful together are cliqued up and will never criticise Ole and all seem obsessed with a Striker as SAF loved collecting them, but all of them seem to forget the calibre of midfielders they played with in Scholes, Carrick, Giggs and Keane, the latter is the only ex United player who comments on our midfield but is mostly focused on Fred.
It was disingenuous nonsense from Ole comparing Klopp and Ole over the first 99 PL games.
This completely ignores their starting point thus removing all context from the comparison. These were the teams they started in their first game in charge.
Manutd - DDG, Young, Lindelof, Shaw, Matic, Hererra, Pogba, Lingard, Rashford, Martial
Liverpool - Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Lucas, Milner, Can, Lallana, Firmino, Coutinho
Ole took over a much better side. What's even funnier is ignoring the CL where Liverpool steamrolled teams to reach the final. If Ole had done the same with us, no doubt Gary would have included that in his comparison.
He should be ignored on all matter relating to his opinion on Ole and Kane.
This completely ignores their starting point thus removing all context from the comparison. These were the teams they started in their first game in charge.
Manutd - DDG, Young, Lindelof, Shaw, Matic, Hererra, Pogba, Lingard, Rashford, Martial
Liverpool - Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Lucas, Milner, Can, Lallana, Firmino, Coutinho
Ole took over a much better side. What's even funnier is ignoring the CL where Liverpool steamrolled teams to reach the final. If Ole had done the same with us, no doubt Gary would have included that in his comparison.
He should be ignored on all matter relating to his opinion on Ole and Kane.
Even with the stat he did show, he also glossed over the net spend figures. Klopp had a net profit of £13m, while Ole has a net spend of £314m. Those numbers are vastly different making any positive comparison for Ole.
I also found it funny how they listed runners up and listed the PL as an equivalence to cup competitions. What was interesting is how Liverpool accumulated more points finishing 4th in 2016-17 & 2017-18 than we did finishing 2nd last year.
He then talked about LVG and Jose being world class managers. LVG was far from world class when we brought him in and even if you give him Jose, who showed signs he was on the decline, his spell at Spurs and only Roma being interested in him shows he too is far from world class at present.
That’s unfair on Ole, you’re judging them on hindsight. He had to clear out the likes of Lukaku and Sanchez to develop Rashford and Martial and even then Martial isn’t if the standard. This forum wanted Shaw replaced this time last summer and Lindelof has been crucified on here.
We are crying out for a bit more of it though I'd say. Midfield control being better at pass and move press, press resistant. No?
I don’t think so. City crowd out the midfield while Liverpool have runners.
Teams now seem to keep the ball out wide and build from there.
Maybe I’m wrong but there seems to be less midfield dynamos than there were 10 years ago but there’s a surge in wide forwards who have the game go through them
You don't think we need to improve in possession in the middle? And off the ball movement in general or need an organised press or resistance to press.
He obviously thinks that owners are using monopoly money.
It's really disrespectful to Klopp comparing Ole with him even just for their first 99 games.
1. Klopp started with worse team
2. Got them play modern attacking football
3. Consistently do well in PL and CL
4. Klopp did it with negative net spend while Ole spent more than 300 mil. This is a huge difference!
And most important of all, Klopp won PL and CL after that. Ole is still very far from getting Man Utd to win major honours. The inconsistency, style of play and in-game management are showing Man Utd under Ole is still far away from becoming a serious challenger for Top honours.
Neville's defense is so bad it's the equivalent of the Streisand effect. As others have said, the sensible approach in defending Ole would have been stating it's only the first two games, the two new players aren't match fit, etc. etc.
But to say we've already tried the world class route is mindless. Carragher nailed it.
But to say we've already tried the world class route is mindless. Carragher nailed it.
Gets a funny high pitch to his voice when he's talking shite does Nev
It is easy to mistake eloquence for intelligence. He doesn't half spout some shit.
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Garry Neville asking why Man United arn't trying to sign Kane.....has he turned into a muppet on a transfer forum??....... Because he would cost between £130-150 million pound and we don't have that kind of money!!!
He really is clueless and not just on this subject.
Has he come out as bemused we're not in for Mbappe yet?
Solskjaer is in his fourth season and Neville is still talking about what players we need to 'challenge'. When does he start asking questions of his former teammate?
Neville thought Maguire would be a title chasing game changer for us all by himself like VVD was to Liverpool. When that didn't pan out expectations were reset and he led the clamoring for a suitable partner for Maguire and a world class RW.
We have both of those now, but apparently it's still not enough, Kane is a must! As we go into our fourth season without a trophy it makes you wonder what Neville will say we need next if we fail to mount a challenge.
Neville thought Maguire would be a title chasing game changer for us all by himself like VVD was to Liverpool. When that didn't pan out expectations were reset and he led the clamoring for a suitable partner for Maguire and a world class RW.
We have both of those now, but apparently it's still not enough, Kane is a must! As we go into our fourth season without a trophy it makes you wonder what Neville will say we need next if we fail to mount a challenge.
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Gary shifting those goalposts again I see. Utd are forever destined to be rebuilding in his eyes.
Ole gets a free ride by Gary every time United do poor. None of them want to say anything bad about him.
It's amazing considering the bashings Mourinho got on a regular basis.
It's amazing considering the bashings Mourinho got on a regular basis.
They should prevent him from commenting about United as he's clearly biased in a way that will always protect Ole
Mbappe is way too French for his taste.
I can’t listen to this again.
so cringing !
He was saying last season that we don't control games from start to finish. And that we rely on individual moments and that Ole still had a lot to prove or words to that effect. So we may hear more honesty fr him as the season plays out..
I’m the first to call out Neville when he’s talking shite, but let’s actually scrutinise what he has actually said (I’m going to paraphrase a touch):
Carragher is the one who lacks any real argument throughout this. Primarily because it’s clear as day that we don’t have the midfielders to challenge for the title. This isn’t some sort of excuse that is used to dress up the manager; it’s just an undeniable reality that was staring us in the face at the weekend. He can get uppity about £50 million players all over the park as much as wants, but sometimes these players aren’t all that. Fred and Matic cost a combined £87 million and nobody is under any illusions as to how successful these were on Sunday.
He asks ‘is it the players, the squad, or the manager?’ Well, in truth it might be all three in the end. But Ole merits the time to see this out and it’s imperative we continue to buy the right players in the right positions. When we have good players all over the park then it’s fair game for all.
- Ole deserves another twelve to eighteen months to get it together (Carragher himself says that Ole has done a ‘good’ job).
- The Europa final was a ‘bad’ loss that will hang over Ole unless he wins something this season.
- United have tried high profile managers post-Ferguson and these projects have failed.
- Cavani and Martial will leave the club in the next year.
- United need to buy a centre forward in the next year and should be looking to buy the best one in the country.
Carragher is the one who lacks any real argument throughout this. Primarily because it’s clear as day that we don’t have the midfielders to challenge for the title. This isn’t some sort of excuse that is used to dress up the manager; it’s just an undeniable reality that was staring us in the face at the weekend. He can get uppity about £50 million players all over the park as much as wants, but sometimes these players aren’t all that. Fred and Matic cost a combined £87 million and nobody is under any illusions as to how successful these were on Sunday.
He asks ‘is it the players, the squad, or the manager?’ Well, in truth it might be all three in the end. But Ole merits the time to see this out and it’s imperative we continue to buy the right players in the right positions. When we have good players all over the park then it’s fair game for all.
The thing that irritates me the most is he keeps banging on about how we’ve tried going down the ‘world class’ manager route and it hasn’t worked. No Gary we hired 2 managers who were world class at one stage in their career but not when we hired them. It’s Man Utd we should be going after the absolute best managers possible all the time, just because one doesn’t work you don’t just dismiss the rest. You wouldn’t operate that way if it was players you’re looking to sign, oh we’ve tried the world class talent route so now we’ll go down the bang average one. 
Which 'world class' managers are available at this point in time though? At a stretch it's Conte and Zidane. Neither of which guarantee success, and neither of them are necessarily a better fit for United than the current manager anyway.The thing that irritates me the most is he keeps banging on about how we’ve tried going down the ‘world class’ manager route and it hasn’t worked. No Gary we hired 2 managers who were world class at one stage in their career but not when we hired them. It’s Man Utd we should be going after the absolute best managers possible all the time, just because one doesn’t work you don’t just dismiss the rest. You wouldn’t operate that way if it was players you’re looking to sign, oh we’ve tried the world class talent route so now we’ll go down the bang average one.
If we have a poor season under Solskjaer this year there's another conversation to be had, but at this point in time he doesn't deserve the sack, and there's no magic solution waiting in the wings.
I'm more on the agreeance with Carra. He's right in that we have a top squad with 50m plus players on the park yet we can't challenge for the league. Every season all we talk about is bringing that next player or in a "rebuilding process" as if we haven't been doing it since since his tenure.
I'm of the opinion that Ole won't challenge for the league, we will fall short and somehow it's groundhog day.
Tuchel is a prime example. Chelsea were in tatters after Frank left, a laughing stock yet look at them now. CL and Super Cup winners.
I’m not calling for Ole to be sacked right now, I’m giving him to the end of the season to see if he delivers. The point I’m making is Gary Neville always throwing out this statement of we’ve went down the world class manager route which is bollocks for a start as we haven’t hired any manager who were considered world class at the time of the appointment. It’s also plain stupidity to write off hiring any future top managers because previous ones didn’t work out.
We should be challenging for the league. I expect we will. But my overwhelming belief is that the team isn’t good enough to get over the line because our central midfield options wouldn’t look out of place in a midtable team.
We’ve been playing catch up in the transfer market for years and the club still (seemingly) refuse to try and get ahead for once.
If the team is miles off the pace then scrutiny will be warranted but we’re talking about two different things here: challenging and winning.
predicting the Gary Neville Manchester United transfer talk algorithm
“I don’t think [insert foreign player here] is good enough, I think United should be looking at [insert English player here]”
“I don’t think United need [insert foreign player here] when they’ve already got [insert English player here]”
“I don’t think Manchester United should be spending that much money on [insert foreign player here]”
“I think United really need to make a statement & break the bank for [insert English player here]”
“I don’t think [insert foreign player here] is good enough, I think United should be looking at [insert English player here]”
“I don’t think United need [insert foreign player here] when they’ve already got [insert English player here]”
“I don’t think Manchester United should be spending that much money on [insert foreign player here]”
“I think United really need to make a statement & break the bank for [insert English player here]”
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Didn’t he openly state on Sky Sports that United should pursue Varane? Varane is French.
Giggs recommended James to United, Van De Sar recommended VDB to United. They were bought in good faith by Woodward and probably Ole wasn’t consulted on these signings. I still not impressed with Neville as a pundit as he gets in his left wing views as often as possible. Keano tells it like it is and is way better than Neville.
Yep that's right, Ole signs the players who do well but the ones who don't he didn't have a say on.
We know exactly how transfers work at the club and how the committee and Ole function, we know Ole convinced VdB to come to United through multiple calls, we know Ole signs off on every single player, we also know Ole's transfer record has been good overall so far so why are so many posters fabricating excuses for something that isn't even an issue?
I completely understand it from a human level.
If you worked with and liked someone then it's not easy to be totally objective. I can't imagine myself tearing into a former colleague who I knew and liked on national TV. However, Nevill does let himself down at times by the extent he dances on the head of a pin when it comes to Ole.
Every United fan knows the biggest question mark over our team is the quality of the manager and he damages his own credibility when he dances around that.
If you worked with and liked someone then it's not easy to be totally objective. I can't imagine myself tearing into a former colleague who I knew and liked on national TV. However, Nevill does let himself down at times by the extent he dances on the head of a pin when it comes to Ole.
Every United fan knows the biggest question mark over our team is the quality of the manager and he damages his own credibility when he dances around that.
The current CL and League winners didn't have a 150m striker. How could they do that, Gary?