Neville slams ‘wimpish’ Man Utd star for ‘appalling’ mistake as Amorim is ‘let down’ vs Tottenham

Joe Williams
Gary Neville on Tottenham
Gary Neville during his role as a Sky Sports pundit.

Man Utd legend Gary Neville has accused Lisandro Martinez of making a “wimpish” mistake as the Red Devils lost 4-3 to Tottenham on Thursday.

Both goalkeepers had nights to forget as Spurs moved into the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup in a match full or errors with the Argentina international coming in for criticism.

Martinez was blamed for Tottenham’s second goal, after Dominic Solanke had already put Ange Postecoglou’s side ahead, with the Argentinian failing to deal with a cross and flicking the ball straight to Dejan Kulusevski.

The Sweden international fired the ball past Man Utd goalkeeper Altay Bayindir from inside the penalty area to double Tottenham’s advantage.

After watching Martinez’s performance on Thursday night, Man Utd legend Neville described the player nicknamed ‘The Butcher’ as ‘wimpish’ for Spurs’ second goal.

Neville said on Sky Sports: “I have to say the clearance from Lisandro Martinez is quite simply appalling. To play that straight to Kulusevski.

“He’s been let down by two poor mistakes, Ruben Amorim. He really has. You can talk about structure, shape, patterns tactics, but if your goalkeeper parries one out into the centre of the box and your centre back flicks one with the outside of his left boot…it’s a wimpish clearance.”

Tottenham were in complete command of the match after Solanke scored his second of the match to put Postecoglou’s men in a commanding 3-0 lead.

Two mistakes from Spurs goalkeeper Fraser Forster saw Joshua Zirkzee and Amad Diallo get two goals back for Man Utd with 20 minutes left to play.

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Bayindir did not cover himself in glory for Spurs’ fourth goal with Son Heung-min scoring direct from a corner with the Man Utd goalkeeper complaining of a push from Lucas Bergvall.

But Neville had no sympathy, he added: “It’s a mess, I’ve got no sympathy for goalkeepers that get pushed off the ball by defenders,’ said the former Red Devils defender. ‘He’s fuming but I still think he’s got to be stronger.”

Man Utd boss Amorim thought his side were the better team for the majority of the match as they dipped out of the first domestic cup of the season.

Amorim said: “We showed that in the past games also when we were losing in difficult moments. We disconnect in the beginning of the second half, it was a tough moment for us, like 10 minutes.

“And then we return, I think we did a great job. I think if you look at all the game, I think we were the best team but they [Spurs] were more clinical. We lose the game but the fight from the lads was really important for me.”

On taking advantage of Spurs’ high line, Amorim continued: “We know that this team [Spurs] play with a high line. When they switch sides, they try to push us so we tried to take advantage of that.

“I felt a little bit a lack of physicality in those balls because we had the position and we have to work on that. Overall, it was a good match but there is no taste in that. We didn’t win, we need to focus on the next game.”