Gary Neville has said Manchester United’s dire performance in a 1-0 loss to Everton was “not acceptable” and “smelt of complacency.”
United were up a man from the 13th minute after Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye was sent off for slapping teammate Michael Keane in a bizarre dismissal.
They could not make that count, though, and fell behind after Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s strike shortly before half-time put the away side in front, and they were able to hold onto the lead courtesy of an abject United performance and some inspirational goalkeeping from Jordan Pickford.
Ruben Amorim’s side could have gone as high as fourth with a win but now remain in 10th, such is the tightness in the Premier League, with just five points separating Chelsea in second with Liverpool in 12th.
Neville believes that potential of being in the top four played on the minds of the players pre-match and came across in the performance.
Man United’s loss to Everton was their fourth of the season in the Premier League. EPA/ADAM VAUGHAN
He said on the Gary Neville Podcast: “It’s as if they’ve imagined in their heads they’re going to be in the Champions League places, and they thought that maybe before the game.
“It just smelt of complacency, they weren’t at it from the beginning — that is a bad one for United.
“I think they’ve been a lot better in the last few weeks, that probably takes us back to Brentford away.
“You can’t go from the fight that they showed in certain games to that, it just erodes confidence, it erodes trust.
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“We’re trying to build a trust in a manager, we’re trying to build a trust in a team.
“The fans booed collectively at the end, it was loud, and rightly so — that was a really poor performance.
“It’s almost as if you’ve gone two or three steps forward, everyone’s feeling a little bit better about themselves, and you’ve just gone back to the start again.
“You can lose football matches, but you can’t lose them like that, that’s nowhere near good enough, it’s not acceptable.”
Idrissa Gueye was sent off for slapping Michael Keane at Old Trafford. Getty
United were forced to play forgotten man Joshua Zirkzee due to injuries sustained by Benjamin Sesko and Matheus Cunha, and the Dutchman had the pick of the chances with a flicked header that was brilliantly saved by Pickford.
Neville was adamant that missing their two preferred centre-forwards was not a reasonable excuse and praised Everton’s mentality when down to 10 men.
“Forget [injuries to Sesko and Cunha], there are no excuses. I’m not entertaining that one bit,” he added.
“Everton dominated them with 11 men and with 10 men, in a different way of domination, but they dominated them through their fight and their spirit.”