Manchester United’s season has slipped into the sort of trouble that makes every home defeat feel heavier than the last. Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Bournemouth at Old Trafford left Michael Carrick without a win in eight matches, with United sitting only one point above the relegation places and their supporters booing the players as they left the pitch.
Gary Neville believes the manager should not be carrying the blame alone. The former United captain, now a Sky Sports pundit and the club’s fifth-highest appearance maker with 602 games, delivered a severe assessment of the squad and of the decisions being made above it.
“Some of them are not very professional,” Neville said. He argued that members of the group are failing basic standards away from the training ground, suggesting some do not go to bed at sensible times, eat properly, or devote themselves fully to the demands of playing for Manchester United.
For Neville, the issue is not merely poor form or a side short of confidence. He said certain players had allowed their status to distort their priorities. “It has gone to their heads,” he said, adding that some of those involved “are nothing”.
Carrick faces consequences
Neville knows Carrick well from their time together at United and with England, and described his former team-mate as an honest, credible and professional coach who consistently tries to play football of a high standard. In Neville’s view, those are precisely the qualities missing from parts of the dressing room.
“It cannot just be the manager’s fault again,” he said, while accepting that Carrick may still pay the price for results he has been unable to turn around. Neville expects the United boss to be dismissed, saying the last few months have become too much for him and that he will suffer the consequences of failing to deliver.
The situation was made more awkward by Bruno Fernandes’ public criticism of Carrick after United’s 4-1 Champions League defeat at Como. Neville said that if the captain had turned on the manager, even in a relatively small public remark, it raised an uncomfortable question about what may be happening behind closed doors.
His criticism extended to the boardroom, where he said bad decisions were being made and warned that the position was damaging the club commercially as well as on the pitch. United now face a familiar but increasingly grim calculation: whether another change in the dugout can solve a problem Neville believes runs far deeper than the man selecting the team.
