Gary Neville has dismissed Manchester United’s midfield as ‘non-existent’ after the Red Devils began their Premier League season with a 1-0 win over Wolves.
United stumbled to their first top-flight English win of the brand new season as Old Trafford celebrated taking three factors of their season-opening recreation.
Neville spoke on Sky Sports after the sport when he defined that Erik ten Hag’s aspect had did not impress towards a struggling Wolves crew.
He mentioned: ‘Manchester United’s midfield didn’t exist, it was emptying. It could have been a form of concern, for those who noticed Man United in pre-season and Casemiro left to their very own gadgets when Mason Mount and Bruno Fernandes went up entrance, it seems to be nice.
“But you need to have a stability. And the entrance three don’t actually work laborious sufficient in a defensive sense, that will have been an actual concern as Wolves solely acquired a brand new supervisor 4 days in the past and plenty of distress about how their season will finish, however they’ve been good tonight.
Gary Neville labeled Manchester United’s midfield ‘non-existent’ after their 1-0 win
Neville was much less impressed after United limped to a slim victory towards Wolves
United’s new midfield, together with summer time signing Mason Mount, was set as much as assault from the beginning with residence supporters anticipating to see an unleashing of attacking prowess towards a Wolves aspect nonetheless harm by the lack of their supervisor.
But regardless of creating a few half-chances within the opening adjustments, Mount, Casemiro and Fernandes struggled to open holes within the sturdy visiting defence.
New captain Fernandes hovered across the attacking third to attempt to discover house, whereas Mount – making his first aggressive look for United – was energetic however lacked high quality on the ball.
It wasn’t till Raphael Varane scored the one purpose of the sport within the 76th minute that United acquired a shot on track earlier than two extra adopted within the dying minutes.
Victory was assured because the hosts escaped a stoppage-time penalty as Andre Onana clattered into Wolves substitute Sasa Kalajdzic.
A VAR evaluation finally determined that no additional motion could be taken earlier than Wolves boss Gary O’Neil revealed he had obtained post-match apologies for the choice.
United held on to an unconvincing three factors in entrance of a 75,000-strong residence crowd to cement their place among the many Premier League’s opening weekend leaders
Bruno Fernandes (left) was not at his greatest as United struggled to interrupt down Wolves’ defence
Brazilian winger Antony struggled all the best way and was hooked within the second half
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Neville was unimpressed with United’s strike focusing on Marcus Rashford (left)
It was an equally disappointing efficiency from Man United’s attacking trio of Marcus Rashford, Antony and Alejandro Garnacho, as new striker Rasmus Hojlund watched from the stands as he recovers from a again drawback.
Rashford usually broke into harmful positions however couldn’t get a lot enjoyable as he tried to dribble by way of Wolves defenders on a number of events, Garnacho was wasteful along with his photographs and Brazilian star Antony was hooked halfway by way of the second half.
Control in midfield was misplaced as Wolves created the higher possibilities and loved an virtually equal possession, whereas additionally having extra off-target photographs than the hosts.
New supervisor Gary O’Neil might be bolstered by his aspect’s resilience, whereas Ten Hag must work by way of points forward of their subsequent recreation with the Spurs on Saturday.