‘I’ve seen Liverpool play a lot f**king better’ – Neville warns Man Utd over ‘absolute shambles’

Gary Neville doesn’t think Liverpool “played that well” in their 7-0 win over Man Utd last season as he warns the Red Devils over their away record.

Just one week after winning the Carabao Cup and ending the club’s six-year wait for silverware, the Red Devils came back down to earth with a bump in a humiliating defeat to Anfield on March 5.

Cody Gakpo had put Liverpool into a 1-0 lead at the half-time interval but nobody could have forseen what would happen in the second half as Man Utd were ripped apart.

Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah ended the day with a brace each before substitute Roberto Firmino grabbed the seventh in the 88th minute.

And Neville has reflected on an embarrassing night for Man Utd with the result equalling the Premier League club’s record competitive defeat.

“I was just embarrassed that it got so bad in the second half,” Neville told FourFourTwo. “I actually don’t think Liverpool played that well [Jamie Carragher bursts out laughing].

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“Honestly, I’ve seen Liverpool play a lot f**king better. Liverpool weren’t in a great run of form; they lost to Bournemouth the week after. There were a couple of really good goals, but other than that, the goals were an absolute farce. United did that a few times during the season.

“It was out of character because, to be fair, they finished third in the league, got to cup finals, beat Barcelona and beat Manchester City and Arsenal at home; they won some massive matches.”

Man Utd had a number of disappointing away defeats last season and Neville insists they will need to improve that this season if they want to challenge at the top.

Neville added: “Their away record, particularly against the big teams in the top half of the league, was absolutely shocking.

“Obviously, the hardest games in the season are the away games against the top teams, so it’s a big fix, but it was basically a disaster for us against teams like Brentford, Brighton, Liverpool [and] City. All of those games were an absolute shambles.”

Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag was full of praise for his team on Sunday after they bounced back from a “stupid” goal to secure a 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao in their final pre-season friendly.

Ten Hag told the club’s official website: “In one weekend, two times we are losing, but you see this team have character and that’s what you need in a season as well.

“Sometimes you are down and then you have to show resilience and especially in such moments, you need determination. We have shown that this weekend, it was a good weekend for us.

“Yesterday I thought it was a very good level, today I have seen also very good spells.

“I think the start of the game was also very good and we should have scored a goal to go up, because it was a great chance from Jadon Sancho.

“We had some good moments after that as well and it was stupid how we went down, but as I said, we had a result and we came back so it was a good weekend for us.”