Gary Neville slams four ‘ageing’ Man Utd stars

Carlo Garganese

• 5 Nov 2025 09:00 CST
• 2 min read

Nieuws

Gary Neville has issued another withering attack against Man Utd, singling out four experienced players for criticism.

Just days after he slammed Benjamin Sesko, remarking that the struggling striker is "well off it", Neville chose four new victims.

This time, Neville targeted four experienced members of the Man Utd team in Harry Maguire, Matthijs de Ligt, Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro.

Neville believes that they are not creating a strong enough spine, culminating in the disappointing 2-2 draw at Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

What did Neville say?

“I think your spine of a football team is critical,” Neville told The Overlap’s Stick to Cricket show.

“When I first came into Man Utd, our spine was (Peter) Schmeichel, (Steve) Bruce, (Gary) Pallister, (Roy) Keane and (Eric) Cantona and so we were all scattered around it.

“We literally were able to be cushioned by this unbelievably strong spine that delivered reliably every single week.

“I think Maguire and De Ligt should be doing a lot better than they are.

“You know, you look at the experience that those two have got.

“De Ligt’s played a mountain of games at sort of different levels, the highest level.

“Harry’s played so many times for England. You’ve got the midfield, Casemiro and Bruno have got massive experience.

“Up front, they haven’t got the experience.

“But to me, that spine of Bruno Fernandes, Casemiro, Maguire and De Ligt is ageing, but should be doing a lot better at holding it all together than they do.

“That’s why I think Liverpool are good because they’ve got Alisson, (Virgil) van Dijk, they’ve got (Alexis) Mac Allister and (Ryan) Gravenberch in midfield, and then they’ve got obviously the centre-forwards that they’ve got.”

United have endured another difficult start to the season under manager Ruben Amorim, although they are only one point off the top four at the start of November.

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