Manchester United's eventful draw with Sheffield United was a mixed performance for several key players. Despite the result, Gary Neville is standing over his criticism of their attacking trio Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Daniel James.
During the game, Neville was highly critical of their attacking movement. He made the comments on-air as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side were losing: "All game. Nothing at all from them."
The attack for 70 mins were so poor. I watched it back again yesterday on and they have to do a lot more than that. Nowhere near enough penetrating runs / movements into pockets and you must contribute when the team is not playing well in other ways.
But the Last 20 ❤️ https://t.co/rjKzUxyY8I— Gary Neville (@GNev2) November 26, 2019
Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, the Sky Sports pundit explained what he meant by his evaluation.
"They've got a few players who could go on to be fantastic, Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, Dan James," he said. "They're at that point in their careers where there's promise, real potential, and they show you glimpses of real class.
"They've got to make that jump, I saw it years ago in players like Ronaldo and Nani develop. Wayne Rooney wasn't the finished article when he came to United. They developed into something special.
They are young. They frustrated the life out of me for 70 minutes watching them against Sheffield United because I didn't think they gave enough to the team when they weren't playing well.
I don't have a problem with them not playing well, but you have to contribute when you're not playing well. I didn't see them hassling the defenders, making runs in behind. I saw them ambling around quite a bit and feeling sorry for themselves. The body language wasn't great.
"That gives Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his coaching staff the footage to go at that front three. There's nothing better as a coach than if you can say to young players, 'this cannot happen but look at this when you're at it and playing well'."
The club are in Europa League action this week but have taken a youthful side to Astana with Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna remaining with senior players in Manchester. Nicky Butt will accompany the manager to Kazakhstan.
