Gary Neville says Manchester United fell behind in their 1-1 draw with winless Wolves because of Ruben Amorim’s decision to revert to a back three.
United missed a chance to take fourth place as Amorim’s side were booed by their own fans at Old Trafford, losing 11 games in a row and becoming the first side to drop points to Wolves since October.
“It was the worst of the worst,” the Sky Sports pundit said on Gary Neville’s podcast.
“At full time they were not only booed. The fans were waiting in the stadium to keep booing them.”
United trailed from the start but took the lead through a deflected shot from Joshua Zirkzee, before Wolves got a deserved equalizer just before half-time with a header from Ladislav Krejci.
Neville was surprised that Amorim did not stick with the back four that beat Newcastle at Old Trafford on Boxing Day, as he only substituted Zirkzee for the injured Mason Mount.
“They went backwards,” the Sky Sports pundit said in his joint commentary after the equalizer. “I don’t really understand why they changed. Maybe Wolves were the better team.”
“This isn’t right. I’ve watched enough of United over the last five or six weeks to know what’s right and what’s not right,” he said after just 20 minutes.
“No, Ruben, why did you do that?”
Amorim looks up to the sky during the draw with winless Wolves
Neville became less and less impressed with United’s performance as the game wore on, and Wolves came close to winning their first win of the season, but were thwarted by two crucial saves from Senne Lamence.
Sky Sports pundits felt that Amorim’s formation choice was the cause of his departure, and questioned comments made in a press conference in which the head coach said he could not adjust the system due to media pressure.
“He doesn’t have to say ‘I haven’t changed because of the media’ because then he’s basically telling us that the media is on his mind,” Neville said on the Sky Sports podcast.
“The reason he had to change is because the performance level of the 3-4-3 was very low and the results were terrible.
“When you see us back (in third place) after five minutes tonight, you think, no, Ruben, why did you do that?” Neville added.
“The manager needs to look at it and think I was wrong and I made it complicated.”
Amorim XI to be drawn
“Amorim’s subs made Manchester United worse”
Neville again criticized the substitution of Amorim, who had Zirksee sent off at half-time despite having five teenagers on the bench.
Amorim explained after the match that leaving Zirksee out was a tactical decision, not due to injury.
“They made Manchester United even worse,” Neville said of the change. “All the substitutions were strange.
“If Zirksee wasn’t injured and it was a tactical substitution, it was a really poor substitution. Zirksee is no Eric Cantona by any stretch of the imagination, but he needed to come on because of his physicality, presence and experience.
“And he scored a goal. We couldn’t leave him out. So I hope he’s injured. I hope he’s injured because of Ruben Amorim.”
