Man Utd: Neville demands player-only ‘meeting’ as Ten Hag must ‘stop’ one thing ‘at source’
Gary Neville reckons Manchester United’s squad need to have a “meeting” without Erik ten Hag following their “woeful” performance against Tottenham Hotspur.
Man Utd angered Neville as they were beaten 3-0 by Spurs at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon. Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke got on the scoresheet, while Bruno Fernandes got sent off for the hosts.
Co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe surprisingly opted to stick with Ten Hag in the summer after they finished eighth in the Premier League. Their win in the FA Cup final against Man City saved his job as he penned a contract extension until 2026.
However, Ten Hag is already under immense pressure as the Red Devils have lost three of their opening six Premier League games of the 2024/25 campaign. He is currently among the favourites to be the first manager sacked this season.
Speaking post-match, ex-Man Utd star Ashley Young called for his former club to “have a meeting to work out what’s going wrong”.
“I think it just showed today, where you’ve got the two wingers going one-v-one and instead of going to attack the space in behind, they’d rather go back and play the safe pass, That’s when you know you’ve got a winger with no confidence,” Young said.
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“As a winger previously as well, when you’re here, when you see a one-v-one, that’s when your eyes light up, that’s your time to shine.
“When players are not doing that, turning it down and wanting to go backwards, it’s not the way to be doing it.
“It’s one of those things. They are going to have to have a meeting between themselves and work out what is going wrong.”
Neville meanwhile reckons Ten Hag’s “friends need to get a grip of the dressing room”.
“I’d be suggesting the players probably go and have a meeting themselves tomorrow morning without the manager,” Neville told Sky Sports.
READ: Scholes questions why ‘dead’ Man Utd signed £43m man after Spurs loss: ‘Give us something!’
“They’ve got to decide first what they want to do and Erik ten Hag has got a lot of friends in that dressing room that have worked with him previously at other clubs. They need to get a grip of that dressing room very quickly because it didn’t look that great out there in that first half today.”
Neville is also aware that Man Utd “need to reserve” the result and performance against Spurs “rather quickly”.
“I’ve been here at Man Utd enough over the past 10 to 12 years to know that a game and a result like this needs reversing rather quickly,” Neville added.
“The snowball starts to roll down that hill and it gathers pace. Erik ten Hag has got to stop it at source right now because this is a shocking day, a sobering day.
“I said just before the game that there can be no excuses. The players are all fit. Luke Shaw is the only player you’d think would come into this team. A mountain of cash has been spent and invested. The first half was absolutely woeful, as bad as it gets.”
