Gary Neville praises Ruben Amorim for one thing he got right in chaotic Bournemouth draw | OneFootball

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has hailed Ruben Amorim for one thing he got absolutely right, despite the club repeatedly throwing away leads to settle for a 4-4 draw with Bournemouth.

United held by Bournemouth

United enjoyed a bright start to the contest at Old Trafford, creating multiple chances and pinning the visitors inside their own half.

After a period of sustained pressure, United took the lead courtesy of Amad, who nodded home at the line, but Antoine Semenyo drew the sides level when he capitalised on an error between England duo Luke Shaw and Mason Mount.

United snatched back the lead right before the interval, with Casemiro steering a header from the back post. However, the Cherries came out firing after the restart and scored two goals in the space of six minutes. Evanilson broke into the box and made it 2-2 before Marcus Tavernier converted a free-kick past Senne Lammens, whose positioning was suspect.

The teams were drawn level again by a moment of brilliance from Bruno Fernandes, who bent a perfect free-kick into the top corner. The comeback appeared complete when Matheus Cunha then slammed in a fourth goal, putting United on the brink of a remarkable win.

But substitute Eli Junior Kroupi had the final say, making it 4-4 to ensure the spoils were shared between the two sides.

After the final whistle, Amorim lamented United’s woeful defending. He has often been accused of being too pragmatic but the attacking nature of the team’s performance earned him some praise from Neville, who credited him for doing “the right thing.”

Neville gives Amorim verdict

Speaking on The Gary Neville podcast, the ex-United captain remarked, “It was a stunning watch – more for a neutral maybe, but even for me. I was really critical after the Everton and West Ham games because of just the nature of the performance – I thought it was really bland, the Everton one where obviously he kept three at the back and against one – they were down to 10 men; there was no urgency, they weren’t throwing the kitchen sink at it. Same against West Ham, they let large parts of the game drift.”

“It was the complete and utter opposite tonight, I can live with that all day long in terms of the performance and the standard because they played with real intent. Played the ball forwards, always played at full pace.”

“We’ll come onto the mistakes shortly, but I just feel that the way in which, also when United went 3-2 down, and Ruben Amorim then went to 4-4-2 and did the right thing. Forget the system, he did the right thing and he got the right players on the pitch and looked a massive threat.”

Neville continued, “But credit to Bournemouth. In the first half, I thought they were overrun by United, I thought they were going to be out of the game, that it would probably be two or 3-0. But if you don’t kill teams off – I think you said in the first half United had more shots than any other team this season recorded in the Premier League, which demonstrated their dominance.”

“But still, Bournemouth had one or two good moments, as well, get their goal and are still in it at half-time. Jamie Carragher’s words just coming out before the second half that Ruben Amorim will be thinking ‘we should be further ahead in this game’ – that’s true.”

“The second half was absolute mayhem. Absolute mayhem. But just generally in terms of sort of the fans would feel the same thing. There were boos after the Everton and West Ham game, there weren’t boos after this game.”

“There was disappointment, but there were a lot of fans we’ve just seen stay in the stadium to clap the team because they can live with that. If you’re a kid coming to United – my two girls have come tonight – and they’ll be thrilled walking back across that forecourt. They won’t be happy United haven’t won, but they’ll have seen a great game of football, and that’s what you come to Old Trafford for.”

“You come for entertainment, of course you come to see your team win – I get it, you’ve got to win games, you’ve got to win trophies and titles, we can turn to this is sort of not good enough in respect to what happened. They’ve got the entertainment bit right, their performance right, the style right. It’s absolutely critical at this football club and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen tonight from those red shirts.”

On United’s poor defending, Neville noted that the frailties witnessed were expected, especially considering the likes of Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire are unavailable, while Lisandro Martinez is still working himself to full fitness.

Neville said that the only United would have probably sunk Andoni Iraola’s men is by outscoring them and they tried, although it wasn’t enough on the day.

Featured image Carl Recine via Getty Images

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