Gary Neville lashed out at Manchester United’s “horrible” performance in their 1-1 draw with Brentford on Saturday.
United conceded 31 shots throughout the game and found themselves under immense pressure from start to finish, but they nearly snatched a shock win when Mason Mount put the Red Devils ahead in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time.
Kristoffer Ajer equaliser three minutes later to ensure Brentford took something from their dominant performance, after which Neville laid into his former employers.
“I watched Man Utd at Brentford and like everyone else, I couldn’t believe what I was watching,” he said on the Gary Neville Podcast. “I thought they would put a bit of pressure on Tottenham and Aston Villa on the run-in.
“It’s actually really difficult to play that badly. Usually, whatever team you play against, even if you are a top team, the other team will have five or ten minutes of play or a period of domination. I can’t remember any point in the game where Man Utd did anything well at all.
“It was a horrible performance.”
The poor showing against Brentford followed one of United’s best showings of the season – their 4-3 victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-final before the international break.
“I can’t explain that performance. I have no idea where it comes from,” Neville continued. “It’s very worrying that you can go to that level of low.
“You know you can play badly in football, you know you can have players missing, you know you can miss chances and you know sometimes you don’t feel quite right, but that was a dismal, dismal effort in an attempt to play football, in an attempt to work as hard as you possibly can.
“When Man Utd give the ball away their reaction to giving the ball away is non-existent compared to all the other teams I see. They really are one of the worst teams you can see out of possession in terms of making it difficult for the other team.
“What we saw from Arsenal at Man City, and you see the levels of defending, compactness and the work ethic of all the front players to be a cohesive unit and defend together, there’s none of that at United.
“I’m not saying the defenders or the midfield players are blameless because they can do a lot better themselves as well, but there’s not a unity at all. There’s no idea of how to defend and how to play without the ball.
“It just wasn’t very good and there are worrying signs that you can get to that level of low in their performance.
“You think about where Man Utd were at before the international break, they had one of the most incredible moments [against Liverpool]. They should’ve been absolutely bouncing into that game at Brentford and yet, we saw what we saw.”
