Gary Neville believes there is little hope of Manchester United winning the Premier League this campaign as they ‘don’t play well enough as a team’ compared to the other teams challenging at the top.
After a good start to the season, United have hit a sticky patch, losing three of their last four matches in all competitions, recently against Aston Villa in the Premier League.
Kortney Hause gave Villa the 1-0 victory, with Bruno Fernandes missing a penalty, on a frustrating afternoon for the Red devils.
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United are only one point off the top of the league table on Sunday, but Neville believes they will not be able to win the title this campaign due to their lack of cohesiveness as a team, not helped by the arrival of their big summer additions.
‘I said it even when they were winning, even when [Cristiano] Ronaldo scored, they don’t play well enough as a team to win this league in my view. They don’t play well enough as a team,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
‘I think you have to be a unit in and out of possession, and when you only deliver in moments, those moments won’t go for you in certain games.
‘You need patterns of play, you need a way of playing, and at this moment in time I still see a group of individuals playing in moments, with some patterns and combinations at times, but still a team where some are pretty new together – Cristiano Ronaldo, Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho – but they’ve got to come together as a team and start to define a style of play. Then you start to get results when you don’t play well.’
Neville says the huge task is in the hands of Solskjaer to blend the set of superb players into a team, but cannot see them catching Man City, Liverpool or Chelsea this season.
‘I have called them the odd bunch, because I still look at them and think of them as a team who win games in moments,’ said Neville.
‘I look at Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City, they are teams. They put team performances in. That’s not to say United never do, but Ole now has to get United into a team.’
