Manchester United legend Gary Neville has stated that his old club are not in this season’s Premier League title race despite their 6-2 win over Leeds on Sunday.
The Red Devils were in fine form to thrash their rivals, and it moved them up into third place in the Premier League table, giving them the opportunity to go just two points behind leaders Liverpool if they win their game in hand.
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This is quite impressive from Man Utd given their inconsistent form this season, and it’s surprising that they may actually have an opportunity to challenge strongly if they can maintain their fine recent form.
Neville is unconvinced, however, that they’re ready to do that, as he said in his podcast that there is still something not quite right about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side in terms of being able to really go the distance in a title race.
“Their form is really good,” Neville said. “They are scoring goals and coming back in matches, they played well [against Leeds]. Big game against Leicester on Boxing Day.
But there’s something not right. But when you look at where they are in the league and they can go two points behind Liverpool… if you had said at the start of the season that they would be in a position to go two points behind Liverpool with a game in hand coming into Christmas you would’ve absolutely snapped anyone’s hand off.
“Everyone thought City and Liverpool were way ahead and for Manchester United it was about potentially trying to closing the gap.
“But no one thought they would ever be in a position to be so close but they’ll end up second in the league if they can win win their game in hand.
“And it doesn’t feel like Manchester United have played like that. There’s been talk of the manager’s job, obviously going out of Europe was a big problem, the performances at times have been horrible, first-half performances in many games have been terrible.
“You just watch them and think there isn’t a team there emerging that you think can challenge for the title.
“My gut feeling is still to say that. I don’t think Manchester United are going to win the league.”
United fans will hope their former defender is wrong, but admittedly he seems to make good points about the state of this MUFC outfit – the league table may not lie, but there’s still a long way to go and the glaring flaws in this team are there for all to see.
Why is Neville trying to choose his words and refusing to point fingers at the defense. That’s where the problem is. I would be happy if he said “I wish the likes of Maguire fought for the team the way we did”. Maguire doesn’t even sweat after 90 minutes; while Vidic used to leave a pint of blood on the pitch fighting for the team.