Gary Neville REACTS to Manchester United's draw against Leeds | The Gary Neville Podcast

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Gary Neville reacts to Manchester United's draw at Leeds: the fight was there, but top five is still a must

This podcast reviews Manchester United's draw at Leeds. Gary Neville says both sides can take satisfaction from the game, and that Michael Carrick's conservative approach made United more competitive, but Lisandro Martinez's comments exposed dressing-room and control issues. He still insists United must finish in the top five and rebuild their defence.

► Subscribe to Sky Sports Premier League: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsPL ► Watch Sky Sports with NOW: https://bit.ly/NOWPremierLeagueYT Gary Neville breaks down Manchester United's 1-1 draw against Leeds in his latest podcast. 00:00 Leeds 1-1 Manchester United reaction 04:08 Playing at Elland Road 05:35 Lisandro Martinez 09:26 Michael Carrick 13:00 Carlos Baleba 15:45 Balance in the team 17:30 Leeds performance 20:00 Where should Man Utd finish this season? 22:20 Man Utd's next fixtures premierleague football GaryNevillePodcast ► Premier League highlights: https://bit.ly/PL2627HL ► MNF, FNF, SNF & Super Sunday analysis: https://bit.ly/SkyMatchAnalysis ► Gary Neville Podcast: https://bit.ly/GaryNevillePodcast ► Saturday Social: https://bit.ly/SkySaturdaySocial ► Buy this season’s shirts: https://bit.ly/SkySportsShop More from Sky Sports on YouTube: ► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub ► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub ► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket ► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts ► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub ► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1 ► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf ► Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub ► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub ► Sky Sports WSL: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsWSL ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkySportsFootball ► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skysportsfootball ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skysportsfootball ► X: https://x.com/SkySportsPL ► Website: https://www.skysports.com ► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage

Transcript

Well, welcome to the Gary Neville podcast after Leads United won, Manchester United won. And just to start with, is it a point both sides will be happy with or is it a point where a game in which both sides felt they could win it? I think there'll be an element of I'm not going to say delight, I'm going to say happiness, satisfaction is probably the right word. um from both managers about how they stuck at it, how they competed, how they physically sort of what would be um dealt with the game cuz it was a bit of a throwback, wasn't it? It was not a great deal of quality, not a lot of beautiful football, but there was a lot of jewels, a lot of aerial jewels, a lot of crosses, a lot of sort of having to sort of make sure that you stayed with your man, stayed with your runners, the ugly bit of the game. And the way in which Manchester United set up, I think made it that type of game. If Manchester United would have picked a team that had say Rashford, Kuna and Burmo and Bruno Fernandez with Tons and Mayu, it would have been an open game end to end. We might have seen goals. We might have seen more football, but Michael Carrick has gone and decided in this last four or five days that he can't watch anymore what he saw against Tottenham last weekend and what he saw against Fulham a few weeks before that. He cannot see that anymore cuz that's the sort of performance that will leave him in a lot of trouble and also Manchester United in a lot of trouble. So, he's gone back to what would be let's build a foundation of a performance from a from a sort of what would be a defensive footprint. Let's reverse back down the road a little bit. Let's take our football ambitions away momentarily. We've got eight games I think from Tottenham to the end of the next sorry to the next international break in 28 days and we're not going to get through these games by playing beautiful football and outplaying people. We're actually going to get beat quite a lot because we look really soft. So I think Michael Carrick think that there's a satisfaction today from the sort of what will be determination of his team. I think Daniel Farer will be satisfied because he'll have been caught out a little bit by Manchester United's system in the first half. He I think will have thought right I didn't expect that but his team and the way in which they've responded in the second half and the way in which they've competed and they've gone and got the goal you know they're still playing Manchester United who spent 160 million quid and probably got a squad worth a billion pounds and they've got a massive wage bill. there's still an element of like today leads were m maybe slight favorites in the in the eyes of many and that there was maybe a pressure on them to win more than there had been before but still when you look at the sort of what will be resource of both football clubs and what they've spent on players then Manchester United are well ahead so I think at the end of the game I think you'll realize that his team have done well they've still played well they've competed they've made it difficult for Manchester United and a point's a fair result. And I just don't like draws, do we? We just don't like draws on super Sundays. I think we always like a winner, don't we? Full stop. Uh, but what I would say is I think that both teams and both coaches will go home tonight and think, okay, I I took part in a tough game. That's a bloody hard game of football to play and we did well. We, you know, you're not sat here tonight thinking that Manchester United didn't give 100%. You're not talking about the running stats tonight. You're not talking about basically sort of them lacking energy and enthusiasm because they had that today. So there is a brick in the wall for Michael Carrick about how he can maybe move forward and maybe that started a little bit in Madrid even though they lost but they were I think a bit more determined and today I think they've carried that forward. Now we are talking about starting from a very low bar but when you've been where you've been and you've got seven points from seven matches and you're 13th in the league and you're not winning a football match and you can't get you don't know where your next win's going to come from. You're not going to go from sort of what will be here to there in one day. You're gonna it's going to take a little bit of time. So yeah, important two games coming up in the week now. Obviously Ko and Bournemouth next weekend, but they'll feel a bit more together. I think having come out of Len Road and I think from Daniel Far and Le's perspective, they won't take any dent in their confidence today that they haven't beaten Manchester United. I think they'll realize that they've done well in the game. >> I mean, not many sides are going to come to this ground and win. You think Arsenal or Manchester City would come here expecting to win, but everybody else you'd fancy would take a draw before the game. >> Yeah, it's tough. I mean, it always was tough here. I just The first 25 minutes was frantic. It was hostile. There was plenty of tackles. The referee tried, didn't he, in the first 15 minutes to let the game flow, but there was just a couple of little cheeky ones that meant that he had to show his yellow card to get a grip of it. And from both sides. Uh, and you're absolutely right. This is a tough place. Leadeds have to make it that way. You know, if you're lead United, I just think that just generally you can't do anything other than for the people who come into this ground and fight for them and make sure that you basically spilling everything out on that pitch and that you're running through a brick wall. They can't see anything less. And you know, these fans will know they've got a team who do that. They've got a very good team. They play good football as well, by the way. But they compete and they are aggressive and they put crosses in the box. Um, so yeah, I think that today, you know, Manchester United will realize they've been in a game and they've come to a ground that, like you say, many will drop points at this season. So, there'll be a little bit of frustration, satisfaction, but frustration that they've not got the win because they're always is in a football team. But generally, I think that lead United will be uh will be happy as well because like you say, it's they've made it tough for Manchester United in that second half in particular. the comments from Lisandra Martinez after the game against Atletico Madrid. How does that change a football club? How does it change the dressing room? How did it did it have any effect on the game today? He started the game but then went off at halftime we believe with an injury as it stands. >> Yeah, I think it was an injury. We saw him, didn't we, just holding was I don't his thigh in the first half. He looked like he was stretching something after a movement and uh yeah, have no doubt that he wasn't he definitely wouldn't wasn't sub because of anything else. I mean, if he if he was being left out Oh, so if he was being sub at halfime for behavior, it would have been left out before the game, wouldn't he? Um, 99 times out of 100, you could never really point towards those comments helping anybody. You know, he's he's launched into the ownership. He's launched into the technical director. He's effectively without saying it criticized the squad and the players which is you just do directly when you say that we're not you know we've not added enough quality, we've not added enough players. So directly he's having go a go at his teammates which in turn to be fair puts pressure on the manager. So you can't say after those comments if you're in a football club that they're helpful. They're just not. I know the fans liked them and they thought that they were honest and to be fair I don't think anybody disagreed with any of the words that Lzandro Martin has said but trust me I've been in a dressing room where that's happened and it's not helpful and you feel let down and so he's come out and apologized um and you know something that dressing room did need spiking it needed a right rocket up its backside didn't it if you think about the performance against Tottenham last Saturday it was woeful in that first 45 minutes it was absolutely awful in In fact, even for the first 50 minutes of the second half until Bleber came on, it was terrible. And against Fulham, you know, the lack of running, the lack of enthusiasm, the lack of passion was ridiculous. >> We saw that today. We saw that. >> But maybe maybe I don't think I mean it's an unintended consequence of Martin's comments. I don't think he meant I don't think he went out there on Tuesday night sort of launching from the hip and thinking that basically those comments are to inspire my teammates and and get the dressing room buzzing again. But maybe those comments have maybe the players have thought, hang on a minute, he doesn't think we're good enough. He thinks there should be other players in the team. Maybe the manager has has got angry with him and said, "Look, you're out of order. You're bang out of order. You've let those lads down in that dressing room. Who do you think you are?" And maybe there's been a bit of a meeting on Thursday or Friday where they've all had a pop at each other and they've all sort of said, "Right, okay, let's get angry. You've got to have a cause." You know, you think about motivation of why you're going out there, not just in a red shirt, in a white shirt. What's your cause? What's your reason? Your family? Is it your own personal pride? Is it what you are? Is it money for some? Is it the fact that ultimately you just basically want to desperate to win? You want to win trophies? Is it the fact you love the club? Is it the fact you don't want to let your family down? Why would I fight like crazy and have that tenacity and determination every single game never to let my standards drop? And this Manchester United team have dropped well below that and what's their cause? And so fans are looking at that those red shirts and thinking, do you really like playing for this club? Do you really love being a do you care? Why do you care? Maybe this week the cause has been, "Hang on a minute. I don't like the fact that the whole world's having a go at us and that our our Argentinian World Cup winners basically saying that we're not good enough through the fact that we need more players and we not got enough quality and they should have dealt with it in the summer and they own maybe there's been a sort of bit of something that's just, you know, maybe he's just pulled the pin out and just thrown it in the middle there and say, "Right, come on. Let's have a little bit." And to be fair to him, he's done that. Now, like I say, I'm sure on Wednesday morning when they get back from Madrid, I bet they're absolutely fuming, but they've dealt with it pretty well. They've got the apology out of him. It took two goals. >> And it wasn't an attack on the manager, I suppose, from his point of view. From Carrick's point of view, maybe something in those words helped him motivate his side. Whichever way you look at it, >> it's not good for the manager either. Because if you've got control of a dressing room or you've got control of your business and your employees are speaking up and shouting above you, you've not got control. So, whichever way you look at this, it's bad. Let's be clear. You know what I mean? You know, you've lost control. It's chaos. It's a mess. And that's just a fact. So, look, it's not good for anybody. Although the fans appreciate the honesty and they appreciate because it's what they think. They think that, you know, Manchester United should have added more defenders in the transfer window. They should. He's right. They should have maybe gone and got Anderson and um and Tonali or Anderson and Fernandez from Tottenham right up from West Ham. Tottenham rather than the ones they've got. But I actually think Babber and Santos did a decent job in there today. I think that's a good one for them. If you'd said, by the way, at the start of the season, who's going to be your two? That would have been your last two because you'd have said Mayu. You' definitely said Taylorman's or Mayu in there. them two actually could be the way forward because the defense is not good enough. It's not good enough and Babber and actually Santos do protect it >> and they do need protecting and by the way and shouldn't be ashamed of that. I remember Eric Harrison once took so Alex Ferguson missed a game. I think it was against Middlesbrough in 98 was the last game we lost I think before we won the treble. And so Alex Ferguson missed the game I think for a family issue in Scotland. And it was one of the only games I think he ever missed missed a second one I think for a wedding in his family and Eric Harrison my youth team coach um from and our all our youth team coaches came and took the team for the day and basically he abs we lost against middles but half time he came in and he said to the midfield players you I can't remember who it was now but it was two midfield you better sit in there you two and just protect them cuz by do they need protecting and that was a back four I was in Sometimes we needed protecting. We needed sort of that Nikki Button Roy Keane rather than say Paul Scholes in there. We needed sometimes Ronnie Yson or we needed Philip Neville and John O'Shea to sit in front of us in big games. We had Darren Fletcher and really be sometimes we needed protecting that back four needs protection and to be fair to Bourba and to Santos they've protected that back four today more and Tielemans and and and Fernandez have gone in front. So what Michael Carrick's done today he's adjusted he's adapted. Now, if you look back 12 months, we we how many games did we do together under Ruben Hammer? We did Bournemouth, we did 10. It feels like >> we did Bournemouth, we did Everton, >> the reverse of this leads, >> we did leads when they lost. >> We lost We We watched a lot of games, didn't we? >> And he never adjusted. >> He kept Bruno and Casemiro in there. Sometimes he did play a Guate. Yeah, >> he did. Then he kept playing sort of and he kept thinking just adjust. You've got to adapt. And he said obviously I'll die in a ditch over my system. Michael Carrick to be fair doesn't want to play no center forwards at times which at times we had no center forwards today Manchester United I think times Ahmad was chasing back with Goodmanson and and Burmo's half going back with Justin and with with Bogle but he's adjusted he's adapted he's made them more competitive today and he's to be fair got a performance out of them which is a lot better Manchester United fans have stayed behind at the end there today and clap Michael Carrick and the players they've sort of you know you can see it down but that's not because because they think that that's the best team in the world, those Manchester United, because they can recognize that they've actually gone out there today and they've put the they've put a shift in. They've won their jewels. They've thrown their head at it. And so, it's a low base that Manchester United fans actually accept. They want to win. They want to win titles and Champions Leagues. But I tell you what, if you fight for them, they'll stay with you for a long time. But if you don't run and you don't show effort and you don't show enthusiasm, they'll boo you off the pitch or they'll boo you after 25 minutes like they did against Tottenham at home last week because they're not accepting that. They've not fought in their lives every single day of their week from Monday to Friday, give up hundreds of pounds of their salaries at weekends to come and watch you lot, not try. They're not having that. But they will respond to fight and to spirit and to a competitiveness. They will. So, look, today was a We're not going to get carried away here, by the way. And we are I'll repeat myself talking about a depressed standard and a low expectation right now. Seven points from seven. worst start you said since 1986 that's 40 years but it'll feel like a stepping stone for Michael Carrick and it'll feel like the first maybe step on the ladder in the Premier League and they may get some confidence from that and there might be a blueprint there that actually maybe we have to just bring Ka and Rashford and others off the bench and we might just have to go a bit more solid and by the way Bel just want to talk about him a little bit because I have to say I was getting a little bit worried a few weeks ago when I was watching Tielemans and Maynu and then I watched Santos play a game or do with Mayu and I thought that's going to be a struggle. You know, if that's what we've got for the rest of this season and you've got Champions League games every Wednesday, Tuesday, it's not going to be easy this. So, Babber better be good. And you watch him, I know he had a difficult season last year at Brighton, but you watch him in his first couple of games or so for United and he's got something. He's got something. He's got a bit of He's got a strength about him. He's got a presence. >> He was almost assigning they didn't get over the line. It felt like a later one. >> Yeah. And but I tell you what, him staying fit is going to be absolutely critical. I can understand why Michael Carrick took him off with 20 minutes to go cuz three games in a week really. He's played the last half an hour against Tottenham. He's played in Madrid. He's traveled. Then obviously he's playing today in a competitive game. Can't afford I mean maybe he doesn't play him against Ko on Wednesday. Maybe not. Is it Wednesday the game? It's Kier. It's Wednesday. Maybe he doesn't play him. And that might seem a little bit low. That's we're not throwing the Champions League away, but Manchester United have to beat Bournemouth next weekend. And I just wonder whether that Santos Bourba partnership is going to stay there for a bit and let sort of Brun Bruno and Tielemans and others Kuna Ahmad whoever else and Burmoke Rashford let them let a couple of them float around in front be a lot more solid. Make sure we're not giving as much space away. Sick of Manchester United's team being easy to play against and Michael Carrick will be sick of it. So, he talked in his pre-match before the game today about having the right balance. He got it pretty right today. He got it pretty I wondered at one point at 1-1 whether the sort of the tide was coming in and where the leads were going to get a second. And I wondered whether he just had to gamble and go with sort of Rashford and Ka and say, "Let's just go and get a second goal because if we don't get a second, they're going to score." But actually, they came out of it. They responded. He thought five minutes was difficult after Leads scored a goal, but they came out of it and uh and and and and worked out the other side. So yeah, look, I've I've leathered Manchester United. I battered them in the last few weeks. I won't I will not sit there and watch um a Manchester United team not work hard and not run and not compete and not fight for every football. But I can live with that. I can go home on the I can go home today and people will ring me and say, "What do you think?" I said, "Look, we we fought hard. The lads went out on the pitch and they battled." You know what I mean? It means a lot even to me now age of 51. Do >> you know what I mean? I think of my dad and my granddad taking me to watch Brian Robson and Mark Hughes and Norman Whiteside and Martin Booking and Joel Jordan and all those players and they used to fight and they used to throw the head at it and they'd have a cut and Brucey would have his nose smashed everywhere. Means a lot. You know what I mean? That you go and you compete and your team are sort of what would be fighting to go and no