The scoreline in the Liverpool-Manchester United game at the weekend may not have indicated a hammering, but the gulf between the sides was obvious during the 90 minutes.
The away side did make a bit of a push late on, and while they could have snuck a point, you could hardly say it would be deserved. The fact that Roy Keane said his former side did well in a defeat at Anfield tells you how much he now expects of Manchester United.
Gary Neville also waxed lyrical about Liverpool after the contest, perhaps to attempt to justify defeat. Still, he was scathing of his old team last night.
Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, the Sky Sports pundit said United have made a mess of things when you consider the vast amount of money they have spent in recent seasons.
While he seemed to swerve any direct criticism of the club's owners, something he has been accused of doing a number of times in the past, he instead took aim at Ed Woodward. Neville said that he and his management team are the one's who must ultimately be held responsible for the state the squad is currently in:
I can’t change the ownership of United, no one can. I’m struggling to understand why the ownership have persisted in trusting that management team to oversee the building of a Premier League title winning team since Sir Alex left.
I saw a statistic two weeks ago that United have the second-highest wage bill in the world. And that’s the squad they’ve got. It’s unforgivable. It really is.
I can’t believe the investment that’s been put into the squad in the last five, six, seven years and you end up with that out on the pitch.
If you don’t lose your job for essentially overseeing that investment, that wage bill, and putting that team out on the pitch then I have to say something is really wrong.
There’s real talent in that executive team ... but in terms of what the club needed to do for a number of years now is put the best in class football operators into that club and they’re not doing it. They’re not doing it and it’s a mess.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is set to be without top goalscorer Marcus Rashford for the next three months, meaning the club may have to dip into the transfer market this month in search of a forward player. Their supporters will be hoping they experience more success on this occasion than they have in the past.
