Gary Neville admits his 'heart sank a little' when Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag responded to Jamie Carragher's criticism
Manchester United legend Gary Neville has reacted to manager Erik ten Hag's take on Jamie Carragher's criticism.
The Liverpool legend was critical of the Red Devils' performance in their 2-1 Premier League home defeat to Fulham last weekend. Calvin Bassey opened the scoring for the visitors midway through the second period before Harry Maguire seemingly drilled home an equaliser one minute from time.
However, Fulham had the last laugh, with Alex Iwobi netting a dramatic winner in the seventh minute of stoppge time as the Red Devils lost for the first time in 2024. Responding to Carragher's take, Ten Hag had said (as per Daily Mail):
"First of all, some analysts are very objective in their comments, (give) very good advice; some are very subjective. Jamie Carragher, from the first moment on, has criticised, and now he wants to make his point.
"Probably in the first half an hour, yeah, he had a point. Fulham in their midfield set up a little bit surprisingly and then we have to find the solutions. After half an hour we found the solutions."
Neville, though, reckons Ten Hag shouldn't have got involved at all. On the Stick to Football Podcast (as per Daily Mail), the former right-back said that Ten Hag should have kept his thoughts to himself:
"I must admit that when I saw it appear (Ten Hag’s criticism of Carragher), my heart sank a little, from a Manchester United perspective, that he was getting involved in that."
He added:
"The reality is that he might be secretly or privately annoyed and think there are some points you (Carragher) made that are wrong.
"But (he has to think), 'We have conceded a lot of chances. I’m not going to win this one. We’ve just lost a game, got a big game against Nottingham Forest, let’s not look like I’m even interested in that. That was my thinking."
Manchester United returned to winning ways, winning 1-0 at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday (February 28), thanks to Casemiro's 89th-minute winner, to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals.
What Jamie Carragher had said about Manchester United
Jamie Carragher was critical of Manchester United taking to games with a seemingly conflicting game plan.
The Liverpool legend added that he has been consistent about his United analysis, elaborating on what he had said about the Fulham defeat a week ago (as per Daily Mail):
"I didn’t say anything too different to what I’ve said this season, and I wanted to discuss this on Monday Night Football two weeks ago. United had won four games on the bounce, and I came into the show thinking that I’d like to analyse Man United when they’ve won.
'What I was going to say was, "this is not sustainable". They were being a little bit lucky winning these games. The reason I chose United this weekend wasn’t because of the result – it was more the performance that I wanted to analyse.'
He continued
"United’s performance was basically what we’ve been seeing all season. Teams now press from the front, press high, and everyone is on the halfway line.
"Man United are trying to do two different things; the front six were going man-to-man pressing, and the back four were miles behind them. You’re either one or the other.'
Manchester United next take on Manchester City at the Etihad in the league on Sunday (March 3).