Neville names ‘obvious’ Man Utd starting XI as Amorim slammed over ‘baddest of the bad’ tactical display | OneFootball

Gary Neville has named the ‘obvious’ starting XI and formation Ruben Amorim should have used in the demoralising 1-1 home draw with bottom club Wolves on Tuesday night, a result and performance the Old Trafford legend called the ‘baddest of the bad’.

Having lost just one of their last six Premier League outings and shown signs of improvement in recent weeks, the pressure was firmly back on Amorim after one of the worst performances of the season against a Wolves side who are yet to win a league game this season.

The Man Utd crowd vented their anger and frustration as Amorim’s players were booed off the pitch at both half-time and full-time, and Neville did not hold back in his criticism when speaking on his Sky Sports podcast.

He said: “They weren’t just booed at full-time… the little walk-around which the United players have started to do now in every single match, irrespective of the result, the fans waited in the stadium to continue to boo them.

“Sometimes I think when you get a boo at the end of the game, it’s the majority that boo and then the ones that stay will usually signal the fact that they’re appreciative of the fact that they’re walking around.

“But that wasn’t it. They were staying to boo them.”

Neville labelled United’s display as ‘the baddest of the bad’, before once again dissecting the system Amorim used against the bottom side in the league.

He added: “I’m not going to get emotional because I don’t think it’s something that is helpful for anybody but that was the baddest of the bad, that.

“I know some people say that results aren’t everything, but it’s very difficult to win a lot of football matches if you’re not performing well.”

Neville nails down best Man Utd XI

Neville also insists that the best starting XI Amorim could have picked against Wolves was actually starting him in the face, especially given the players that are currently missing through injury out at AFCON.

He added: “It was really simple tonight. The AFCON players aren’t here, we know the injured players aren’t there and it’s actually made his job more simple. There’s more sympathy for him.

“Sesko plays up top, Cunha plays to the left, Dorgu plays to the right, Zirkzee plays in that little hold off Sesko. You’ve got [Manuel] Ugarte and Casemiro in midfield, you’ve got Luke Shaw at left-back, Ayden Heaven and Martinez at centre-back and you’ve got Dalot at right-back. It’s not an amazing team but it’s really obvious that that’s the team that should be picked, in the system that we should be playing.

“It should have been picked and it was so obvious. It’s Zirzkee’s best position, dropping in, Sesko’s got someone close to him which means he’s not playing up front on his own, Cunha’s on the left and can drift in and that’s fine, you’ve got Shaw who can go round him and he’s really good to play with on that side.

“You’ve then got Dalot coming from behind on the other side but you’ve got Dorgu that can cut in, which means Dalot go round.

“The big question marks you would have in that system would be Casemiro and Ugarte, and Heaven and Martinez. However, I thought Ugarte and Casemiro did really well against Newcastle, I thought Ugarte and had his best game for the club, and I thought Heaven and Martinez did brilliantly against Newcastle.

“So I thought those four would just be certain to start there. I always want to say that it’s not just the manager, not just the players as there’s a culmination of everything when you get a bad performance.

“But I do think tonight that the manager has to look at that and think, ‘I got that wrong and I complicated it’, because they just needed simplicity.”

United are back in action on Sunday when they head to Leeds United in the Premier League.

Manchester United have moved on from Antoine Semenyo by targeting RB Leipzig ace Yan Diomande, with a report revealing he can now be signed for a significantly reduced price.

Elsewhere, United would love to re-sign Scott McTominay after admitting they were wrong to let the midfielder leave, according to two sources.