Gary Neville raging at four more United players amid damning Liverpool comparison after going all in on useless Sesko

Gary Neville has fired a major dig at four more Manchester United players who he feels need to do better – and last week’s rant at Benjamin Sesko, a player he indicated was useless, has received further backing by a respected former Premier League manager.

The Red Devils are still trying to find a consistent tune from their expensively assembled squad after their recent three-match winning streak came to a halt with a 2-2 draw at Nottingham Forest on Saturday. While the draw extends their unbeaten run to four games, it will have been a source of frustration for Manchester United, who had seen their side win convincingly at Liverpool the last time they played away from home.

That leaves United eighth in the Premier League, though crucially now just a point adrift of the top four, which is where Ruben Amorim has been challenged to finish this season.

However, to see the job through this season, Neville insists he wants to see more from four of United’s most senior stars, having suggested all can do more for Amorim and to ensure it is mission accomplished this season.

Picking out Matthijs de Ligt, Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro, Neville feels familiar failings were creeping back into their play at the City Ground and has challenged the quartet to do better.

“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.”

Neville’s rant comes just days after he launched a volley of criticisms at the club’s big summer signing, Sesko…

READ NEXT 🔴⚫ Gary Neville can’t hide the fact he thinks Man Utd star is useless

Neville’s Sesko rant receives further support

Neville’s criticism of that United quartet comes just days after he went in both barrels on Sesko, the £77.6m summer signing from RB Leipzig, who has scored just twice in 11 appearances for the club.

“I’m no further forward with him. The jury is out,” began Neville.

“He’s well off it compared to the other summer signings that Man Utd made up front in Cunha and Mbeumo.

“He looks awkward. He had a couple of really good opportunities in the first half when balls got played over the top, and his touch wasn’t quite right.

“For 80 million pounds, you can say he’s young, has a lot of potential and is only just settling in, but you still want to see a bit more.”

That ‘jury is out’ assessment was also backed up by former Newcastle and Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew, who also wonders if United may have signed another striker dud.

“The jury is very much out on him,” he told talkSPORT when asked about Sesko’s performance at United so far.

“I’ve not really seen enough from him yet to stick my hat on him and say, ‘Wow, this guy’s going to be great’.

“It just seems like one of those normal kind of striker bedding-in periods, isn’t it? Where he’s in, he’s out, he’s not really getting game time, enough of it.

“The problem with Manchester United, of course, is when you’ve got a squad which is built for European campaigns, you’ve got no Europe.

“So, he hasn’t got that quantity of games that perhaps he would like.

“It’s a nice problem for him [head coach Ruben Amorim] because he gets to work on the team from Monday to Friday, so to speak.

“For Amorim, I think this is probably what he needed this year, just to sort of work on the team, get his ideas across. Sort that energy out in midfield… and get the striker up and running.”

Sesko suffering compared to fellow Man Utd new boys

His fellow pundit Ally McCoist feels Sesko needs to be given time to adapt to his new surroundings and may be suffering by way of the fact that both Mbeumo and Cunha have started well.

“Clearly, we’ve got to give the lad a bit of time, and he will be given time,” he said.

“I don’t think he’s hit the ground running just as quickly as [Bryan] Mbeumo or Matheus Cunha have. I look at the two of them… they look as though they can handle it, playing for Manchester United.

“It’s a big thing, it’s a massive thing, and we can sit here and talk about seven or eight players immediately that couldn’t handle it.

“Whether it’s [Jadon] Sancho, [Rasmus] Hojlund, Antony, a lot of boys like that. But those two I’ve mentioned have started really well and they look the part.

“Sesko comes into the same kind of category as [Alexander] Isak and [Viktor] Gyokeres, in the respect of out-and-out centre forwards going to new clubs, and haven’t really hit the ground running.

“Gyokeres probably has more than the other two, but I think in the early stages, you’ve seen enough from him where you know there’s definitely a player in there.”

Latest Man Utd news: Baleba truths; huge Elliot Anderson bid

Elsewhere, United have reportedly given the green light by Sir Jim Ratcliffe to bid for Brighton’s Carlos Baleba in January – but our information suggests the club has a different path in mind when it comes to a winter window signing, amid talk of a £90m bid.

That’s because we can exclusively reveal that United have received encouragement that a deal is there to be done for Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson – and there is a confidence from those in power that a huge January transfer could be accepted.

Finally, United have missed out on the loan signing of a top-class Real Madrid star in January, owing to the refusal to include a key clause in the deal, sources have revealed.

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