Gary Neville labels Manchester United’s draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers ‘baddest of the bad’

LONDON – Gary Neville has branded Manchester United’s performance in their draw with winless Wolverhampton Wanderers as “the baddest of the bad”.

United would have gone fourth in the English Premier League had they won at Old Trafford on Dec 30, but bottom-of-the-table Wolves – who kicked off with only two points from 18 games – ended a run of 11 straight defeats with a 1-1 draw.

Ruben Amorim’s men were dumped out of the League Cup by fourth-tier Grimsby Town in August, but Neville still felt United were even worse against Wolves in a match they might have lost but for two fine Senne Lammens saves.

“That was the baddest of the bad that,” the former United captain said on the Gary Neville podcast.

“They weren’t just booed off at full-time. The fans waited in the stadium to continue to boo them. They’ve gone backwards.”

United won 1-0 at home to Newcastle United on Boxing Day, despite missing several injured players, including captain Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt, with three more at the Africa Cup of Nations.

But they failed to fire against Wolves, with Ladislav Krejci’s header just before half-time cancelling out Joshua Zirkzee’s deflected shot.

Amorim’s 3-4-3 system came under scrutiny again after the Portuguese reverted to his favoured formation after playing four at the back against Newcastle.

“This isn’t right. I’ve watched enough of United over the last five or six weeks to know what looks right and what isn’t right,” Neville said on Sky Sports.

“When I see that we go back (to three at the back) after five minutes tonight and I’m thinking, no, Ruben, why have you done that? The manager has to look at that and think, I got that wrong. I complicated it.”

Amorim withdrew Zirkzee at half-time and sent on 18-year-old Jack Fletcher for only his third senior appearance, saying the switch was “just tactical”.

But Neville, referring to Amorim’s substitutions, insisted: “They made Manchester United worse. Every single substitution was bizarre.

“If Zirkzee wasn’t injured and that was a tactical substitution, it was a really poor one.

“Zirkzee isn’t Eric Cantona, by any stretch of the imagination, but he needed to be out there for physicality, for presence, for experience.”

Amorim, however, is still optimistic about United’s prospects this season.

“I’m really confident,” said Amorim at the half-way stage point of the season. “We just need to recover all the players, and I’m really confident.

“I don’t know what is going to happen until the end of the season. Then we will make the resume of the season.”

Nevertheless, the 40-year-old Portuguese boss added: “But I’m really confident when we recover all the players that we are going to be a strong team. There is no doubts in my mind.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea defender Wesley Fofana believes “small details” are behind the Blues’ frustrating habit of letting leads slip after they were again pegged back in a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge on Dec 30.

Enzo Maresca’s side have lost 13 points at home from winning positions this season and are on a run of one Premier League win in seven games.

That sequence has seen Chelsea drop out of the top four, with the Blues wasting several chances against the Cherries as they failed to capitalise on their dominance for the second match in row, following a defeat by Aston Villa on Dec 27.

Said Fofana: “I think we are getting closer, we are just missing small details.

“It’s been an up-and-down year. We got into the Champions League and we won the Club World Cup, which was good.”

However, Maresca could not be in post to sort out those small details.

The Athletic reported that Chelsea’s board are to meet on Jan 1 to discuss the Italian’s future at the club.

Sky Sports, meanwhile, said it is not certain Maresca will be in charge for the Jan 4 game against City after a breakdown in relations with the club. AFP