Gary Neville slams Ruben Amorim’s ‘mad’ Man Utd ways that ‘break all the principles’

Gary Neville slammed Ruben Amorim’s tactics as Manchester United were beaten by Tottenham as they dropped to 15th in the Premier League

Gary Neville slammed Ruben Amorim’s tactics as ‘worse than Under-9s football’ during Manchester United’s defeat against Tottenham Hotspur.

Amorim took a hugely depleted side to north London with just 12 fit first-team players available. The Portuguese was forced into changes, even naming eight teenagers on the bench who hadn’t played a senior game for the club.

However, Neville showed very little sympathy to Amorim, mainly for the way he had set his midfield up. Following injuries to Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte and Toby Collyer, Amorim started Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro as his midfield two.

United’s engine room was stretched at times with Casemiro often isolated as Fernandes picked up wider positions. Speaking on co-commentary for Sky Sports, Neville slammed the midfield setup as “embarrassing”.

He said: “The distance between the two central midfield players, see where Casemiro is and where Bruno Fernandes is, that cannot be right. It breaks all rules in football. Absolute madness.”

The former United captain added: “United may win today and may score goals but I have to say that the structure of the team is awful. The gaps in that midfield between Fernandes and Casemiro.

“That’s a tactic, they’ve been asked to do that, Bruno’s been asked to come out to this side and it isn’t right. Bruno Fernandes is playing right wing, the two of them in midfield are split, it’s embarrassing.

“You wouldn’t see this in Under-9s or Under-10s football.”

Casemiro started his first game since he was hooked off shortly after the hour mark in the 2-0 defeat against Newcastle in December – being an unused substitute in the previous five league matches since.

Amorim previously claimed that the 32-year-old didn’t have the physical capabilities to play his system, he said: “Sometimes it’s a lot of that. It’s also a player’s moment. We understand that Casemiro has other things nowadays. The intelligence he has, understanding the game, understanding where the ball is going to fall but we’re in a league that I can see, even in European competitions, the difference in intensity is big.

“And so, I feel that this team also needs players with a very high intensity. And sometimes we don’t have that and sometimes that difference in characteristic can lead one player or another to play.

“Even the fact that the group has a certain characteristic as a group. I needed some players in certain positions with a slightly different pace. But we all know the quality Casemiro has and everything he won. And so, I have nothing to say about that. It’s just a choice.”