Gary Neville has called on the Man Utd squad to hold a meeting without manager Ralf Rangnick to “sort out” their issues.
Despite being unbeaten in four games in all competitions since replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the Old Trafford helm on an interim basis, the highly-rated German coach has been frustrated in his efforts to implement his methods by the Covid-19 lay-off which saw his side not play for 16 days before Monday night’s 1-1 Premier League draw at struggling Newcastle.
Man Utd misfired alarmingly on Tyneside as a lack of cohesion in attack and uncertainty at the back very nearly cost them, and they head into Thursday evening’s home clash with Burnley with something to prove.
Rangnick is only one player away from making Man Utd great again…
And Neville is hoping that the Man Utd players can hold a team meeting without Rangnick ahead of the match against Sean Dyche’s men at Old Trafford.
Neville tweeted: “On United I’m seeing reports of dressing room dissatisfaction this morning. Something wasn’t right v Norwich and certainly not v Newcastle . Still 4 pts from those games is not a disaster considering the performance levels . Have a meeting ( without staff ) and sort it out!”
On United I’m seeing reports of dressing room dissatisfaction this morning. Something wasn’t right v Norwich and certainly not v Newcastle . Still 4 pts from those games is not a disaster considering the performance levels . Have a meeting ( without staff ) and sort it out! 🙏
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) December 29, 2021
He added: “Performances haven’t been good for months but the body language in the last 2 games (highlighted by RR [Rangnick] post Norwich) has been woeful!!”
Performances haven’t been good for months but the body language in the last 2 games ( highlighted by RR post Norwich ) has been woeful!!
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) December 29, 2021
Rangnick has told his players to get physical after they were branded “a bunch of whinge-bags” by Neville on Monday evening.
TV pundit Neville launched a half-time tirade during the match against Newcastle in which substitute Edinson Cavani’s second-half equaliser at St James’ Park rescued a point.
Asked about the former Man Utd full-back’s comments after the game, Rangnick said: “I don’t think today it was a problem of body language, it was more a question of physicality, of meeting the demands with regard to speed, tempo, physicality. The side-effect is the body language afterwards.
“But I don’t think that was the major problem today for us, the major problem was the way that we played in those moments when it was about physicality.”
Neville was withering in his assessment of the visitors’ first-half display after seeing them go in at the break trailing to Allan Saint-Maximin’s seventh-minute strike.
He said on Sky Sports: “They’re a bunch of whinge-bags. Watch them on that pitch. I’ll not go into names, but they’re whinging at each other, arms up in the air complaining about everything. Honestly, they were absolutely shocking in that first half.
“They got the last manager the sack. Ralf Rangnick is not going to get the sack, he’s only had two or three weeks with them, but they’ll get a lot of managers the sack if they carry on like that, because that’s a really, really poor performance.”