Gary Neville has slammed Manchester United’s poor defending against Crystal Palace, calling Victor Lindelof ‘weak’, and says they must sign a new centre-back as soon.
United made a disappointing start to the new Premier League campaign, with Palace taking an early lead through Andros Townsend on Saturday.
A penalty and retake, saw Wilfried Zaha double Palace’s lead and, despite Donny van de Beek getting one back for the Red devils, Zaha added a third for his club late on to seal a 3-1 win.
Palace’s pacey attack looked devastating on the counter but Neville was unhappy with the defense and does not believes a partnership of Lindelof and Harry Maguire is good enough, saying they have no chance of winning the title unless they sign a fast centre-back.
‘One of the areas that Manchester United are going to try and strengthen is centre-back and it has to be a quick one. Someone who can defend one-on-one,’ said Neville during commentary for Sky Sports.
‘[Jordan] Ayew and Zaha will fancy it against Lindelof and Maguire one-on-one. But you look through all the best centre-back partnerships down the years, they’ve always had a quick one in amongst them.’
After Zaha bodied Victor Lindelof and buried his second goal of the game, Gary Neville continued his rant: ‘Well I think he’s had the beating of those two Manchester United centre-backs all day.
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‘He’s got them exactly where he wants them. He’s just not strong enough there Lindelof. It’s a 50/50. It’s weak!
‘You can talk about Jadon Sancho all you like, but until they get a centre-back in who can run and defend one-on-one, you’re never going to win a league.
‘They’re not going to win the league with that centre-back pairing. They have to get a mobile, quick, dominant centre-back in alongside Lindelof or Maguire. Their defending has been better since Christmas, no doubt, but you’re talking about going up a level.’
