Gary Neville reacts to Man United ending Man City's 28-game unbeaten run 😲| The Gary Neville Podcast

Hi there everybody, welcome to the latest edition of the Gary Neville, the very jubilant Gary Neville podcast. Gary, you've just seen your beloved Manchester United win the Manchester Derby against the Runaway League leaders, what are your immediate thoughts? I'm shocked, you know, because I don't know, I think I've done the last three or four Manchester United games and I think done the last two with you at Chelsea and Sellers Park. You're coming out on that ground at Sellers Park on Wednesday night, I think actually after the game I did an interview back into the studio and I said I thought United would be better here today for a number of reasons. One, it's a derby, just the reaction to what happened on Wednesday and secondly, they actually are suited to play against teams that come at them. But I never expected this, you know, waking up this morning, never expected this. And it wasn't just the fact that, you know, United couldn't win here today, they could, you know, they have done, they've had a good record here the last 12 to 18 months, but it was the way in which they won, the sort of way they've gone about the game. They look so drained in the last couple of weeks and you just think where have they got the energy to be able to play the way they did? Yeah, they might sit back, they might ride the look, they might get a goal on the counter-attack, City could get somebody sent off, all those things that you think in your Manchester United fan's head this morning when you're thinking about the glass being half full. But they pushed up the pitch, maybe the first goal helped them in that first minute. But did that come from actually the attitude that they showed for the rest of the game? Well, if you look at the sort of build-up to the first goal, all the Manchester United players are compact, they're tight together, the defence is up the pitch and they're all around the play and they're picking up loose balls. And that was the same for the first 20 minutes of the game, I felt United really good, the back four really brave. I've said that Manchester United will not win this league unless the back four push up the pitch and feel a little uncomfortable with the space that's left behind them. And I think they're starting to do it a little bit. There's signs in games where today definitely in that first 15 minutes they were brave, not just brave actually out of possession in pushing up, I thought they got on the ball as well and they popped it into midfield. So many teams play against City and they got pushed back into the sort of defensive third and then when they get the ball they pass back to the keeper and run up the pitch and take the easy option. United didn't do that today, probably 15 minutes for half time City started to come on top and you thought here we go, this is the sort of pattern of the game to come. But then the second half United were even better than the first, certainly for the first 25 minutes, the second half they were the better team. City had that one chance, Rodri just after half time where he hits the bar, but after that United dominated, dominated on the ball, dominated out of the ball, they should have scored three and four goals. Martial had two really good chances, Rashford should have hit one that I think to be fair if he did hit it he'd have had a great chance of scoring. So no, I'm a little delirious at this moment in time because I just didn't expect what I was going to see today because you don't think a team can come from here, which they have been really in the last couple of weeks to there and produce that type of performance and City have been outstanding this last couple of months. How much was it down to the fact that nine of the eleven played in a very similar another win here over a year ago, some 15 months ago, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seemed to remember that. I don't think it was a coincidence that the team that Lindelof came back into it and that was one change and obviously Martial who didn't play at Crystal Palace played a pivotal role in it. Do you think that had a bearing on how they went about the business because they know they've done it here before? I think it helps definitely if you've got good experiences at a game or in a game and you've won away at places that definitely helps and Manchester United do have a go-to team, you know they have done now for two years. McTominay and Fred, they play in all the big games. Lindelof and Maguire, I know there's a big cry over the last few weeks and months and maybe at times I've thought myself well why does Bailly not come in alongside Maguire but Lindelof plays in the big games always alongside Maguire and they played really well today by the way both of them so there are sort of what would be patterns that emerge in Manchester United's sort of selection when they play against big teams and they have won here. It's a peculiar record Pep Guardiola dominates most managers that he plays against but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer now has got the better of him and you know City are a better team. The points in the table tell you that but something that those Manchester United players have inside gives them that confidence to think they can come here to the Etihad and win and you just think of it I'm flipping between Analyst and Manchester United fan and I'm thinking you know why not at Anfield a few weeks ago and Liverpool were done everyone's winning at Anfield now why not go for it at Chelsea last week you think go on just show a little bit more intent to go and win the game you know Arsenal other games that we've seen where you thought just a little bit they could have been closer you know they were closer at one point but look we know they're not quite ready yet and that's proven over the last couple of months but what that does give you is a little bit of something that actually finished the season well and I've talked today about finishing a poor second or a good second you know a poor second is whereby it just phases out to end the season it becomes a little bit of a poor league City when it easily you end up 20 points off and you're nowhere near still whereas actually if they can go and get within sort of seven or eight points of Manchester City it will count for something it will definitely count for something when Liverpool were chasing City down over that two or three four years they were getting closer every single year so these 10 games that Manchester United have left are really important they've got to finish a good second if they're going to fish I mean they could be caught by Leicester and other teams but I do think they are the second best team in the country this season so not to finish second would be a real problem but if they're going to finish second big good second not a poor second talk to me about Luke Shaw because you've worked with him you've tried to help him and he's had some downs with managers downs with injuries here he is enjoying a truly outstanding season and wrapping up the win really he's been outstanding this season for United a Luke Shaw fit a Luke Shaw physically good and a Luke Shaw confident is the best left back in the country in my opinion but all those three things being combined at once has probably only happened at certain moments in his career and that's been a problem for him happened under Pochettino at Southampton a little period here under van Gaal I can remember a few years ago where I felt as though he started to build that sort of confidence in those three areas but certainly this is the best period that he's had we've seen him in the last week or two just go down in a couple of games like he's just on the edge a little bit and that would worry me if I was only in a soul shot you might be looking at him and thinking well do I keep him going because he's playing and actually you know bringing him off the roundabout would make it worse and then he obviously might get injured but I just think there's how they handle him in the next few weeks is important Gareth Southgate will be watching him intently thinking well I know Luke Shaw I've seen him before and he's almost given up on Luke Shaw he had and he can't give up on him now I mean he's he's staring right at him and thinking well that is the best performing left back in the country at the moment in terms of English left back so for me what he's done today I mean he could have scored in the first half but he's physically right he's mentally right and he's clear of injury so everything's right for Luke Shaw because he's an amazing talent you know he's a brilliant talent and uh physically he's good he's got a good height about him maybe that's deceiving people don't realize at home he's actually very good in the air he's got a good leap on him he can play left side center back and he did that actually for the last few minutes of the game it's a little bit like John Stones both of them have had the best periods in their career but they've still they've got to do it season in season out for two or three seasons for us to start to really trust that this is the breakthrough this is the moment where they go from potential to letting you down a little bit to potential to letting you down to potential to here we go they are now recognizing what they are as their potential that they've got and being really good brilliant players over a period of two or three seasons for City a bump in the road that's all yeah it'll be a wound for them they'll they'll they'll be hurting tonight Manchester City Pep Guardiola they'll be they'll be wounded by that because they'll have thought today before the game you know this is the moment whereby we really sort of ram it home you know when you've got someone on the floor you just finish them off and they've not you know Manchester United leave here tonight thinking oh here we go and Manchester City going to win the league and it's not going to change the dynamic of the season but it'll just affect the mood a little bit in Pep Guardiola's dressing room for the next few days you know they'll feel a little bit down about this the fact that Manchester United have come here and done this to them because it wasn't just a smash and grab there were large parts of this game where United were really good and could have scored more goals so it'll wound them but I think in the end you know you'll get over it Pep Guardiola because I think he's going to go and win the league again three and four but Manchester United it's all about how they finish the season they've got to really think about how they catch this Manchester City team in the long term you know winning today is a it'll make them feel good tonight and City will feel like I say bad about it but at the end of the season it'll be Manchester City lifting that Premier League trophy and those Manchester United players have got to work out and the manager about how they get to that point whereby they're on that podium because that's the only thing that matters you know there were many times during a season whereby playing at Manchester United we lost games against our rivals but at the end we were holding the trophy up and no one remembered those games that you lost in you effectively just remembered who won the trophy so yeah short-term gain for Manchester United today and a good moment for them and a surprising moment from where they've been this week in their performances and for City yeah they'll have to pick themselves up what about the team that won the trophy last season six home defeats in a row a remarkable they never had five before in their entire history now it's six and Liverpool discuss well I mean it was 68 games before those six defeats that they were unbeaten at Anfield I got here early and put it on in the car on my iPad watching the game and it was just before Liverpool just before Fulham scored the goal I think I tweeted out how bad are Liverpool they're really bad seven changes I think today yeah I mean yeah seven changes but if you go back to the games in the last couple of weeks I mean when I say really bad really bad in sight of how good they've been I mean this is a team over the three years that I yeah we all like different styles of football for me if you said to me put Manchester City over the last three years against Liverpool over the last three years I'm taking Liverpool all day long the speed of play the aggression in the play the style of play I love it I love it I love the front three I love the way in which the back four played um the goalkeepers outstanding and this is Manchester City team is a fantastic team don't get me wrong it pains me to say that both of them are the biggest rivals for Manchester United and you know Liverpool have been absolutely outstanding and reached unbelievable heights and I said that a few weeks ago on you on this podcast that it was acceptable and I was going to go easy on them that they would have a little bit of a dip that after three years this is the fourth year we could never do it a fourth year at Manchester United there was always that dip but this isn't a dip you know when we do when we're in a dip at United it might be we don't finish second or it might finish third I mean this is an absolute collapse it's a collapse is an absolute collapse and they're woeful at the moment in every single way and I don't know what it is I'm sure there's no panic there I mean I'm sure Jürgen Klopp has got the he's got the experience he's got the quality and he'll know that you know ultimately he needs to get his team this season needs to finish simple as that he just needs to get this season over and just limp over the line and we'll barrow them over the line if he has to um but then when he gets them to the end of the season he's gonna have to regroup but then you think about the fact that there's the European Championships and then all of a sudden the season will start again pretty quickly these players aren't going to get much of a rest but they've got to regroup they've got to make sure that the damage that's being done at this moment in time in terms of the confidence isn't long-standing and that the fact that they won the title last year and got to a Champions League final and won it the year before and the Champions League final and lost it the year before that it's still the same group of players is that the problem Martin I I don't see it being as bad as as I'm now I don't I never think in football it's as bad as it looks and never thinks as good as nothing's as good as it looks it's the same in television yeah it's true and we always punish ourselves when we sort of make a little mistake don't we and it's never people at home don't feel it the same way as we do and that's what I'm sure the Liverpool players will be thinking at this moment in time they'll be punishing themselves because look you can't do what they've done in the last few years without being good professionals great professionals and great players you don't get to two Champions League finals and do what they've done with City you know wrestle them right to the end and then win the title last year without being a fantastic team but what's happening at the moment is bizarre it is bizarre I mean I'm having a right laugh to be fair just but it's just having a bit of a joke but the fact that obviously it's been a difficult three years just watching them do what they've done um but they're awful they've just lost everything it feels like they've lost absolutely everything that they had the speed of play the confidence the the way in which Anfield was such a difficult place to go the determination the sort of resilience to win when they weren't playing well there isn't anything there at the moment and I don't know how they get that back other than get to the end of the season they really are going to struggle to get into the top form and they still could but they're really going to struggle because like I say the mood at the moment in the dressing room must be really low it must be you know the confidence must be absolutely drained out of them and I have no I have no answer it goes beyond just what would be a fourth year dip you know this is a real like you say collapse and um they've got a great manager uh who's done a brilliant job and the owners have got to trust in him to put it right because he's done it for them now for four or five years and I'm sure they will and he's absolutely you know he's he's an unsackable manager for the next five years Jurgen Klopp for what he's done at Liverpool he just epitomizes what they want what they are he's captured the sort of essence of what Liverpool is as a club he plays football that's absolutely outstanding and he's allowed a really bad season and that's what's happening at the moment by the standards that they've set there's another side to that story of course Fulham who are moving up under Scott Parker and playing some very good football which has given them the the results that and they went to Anfield believing they could win and they did win and that's changing the relegation picture isn't it they look doomed absolutely uh there was a big gap developing between that bottom three and the ones above but if you're Brighton and Newcastle now and you see the momentum like he's got confidence being drained but then confidence being the confidence in the Fulham dresser must be sky high and if you're sort of Newcastle and uh Brighton looking at that today in particular you'll be thinking they'll be difficult to stop now because they look good they look good in the shape they look good in the performance levels they look good in their individuals they've got goals in the team they've got individuals who look like they can go and win a match and Scott Parker has done a fantastic job but let's be clear I think I might have told you this a few years ago when I was finishing off my part of my pro license and one of the coach educators I was with the FA at the time working with Roy Hodgson and he particularly mentioned Scott Parker as being an outstanding student within the pro license cohort at that time that would have been four or five years ago always stuck in my mind and this person doesn't get coaches wrong you know someone who's been coaching coaches for a long long time and seen all you know a lot of the coaches that we see in the Premier League come through the system and uh you particularly mentioned him and it stuck out in my mind and you can see now you know no panic you talk about having experience at the bottom of the league Scott Parker's got no experience at the bottom of the league he's got no experience of managing in the Premier League at all so the reality of it is what he's doing at this moment in time is special it's really special because it goes against everything that you know seven or eight years ago ten years ago there would have been a period whereby I think that Scott Parker would have been sacked around Christmas or just before and one of the old stalwarts would have been brought in to try and get you out you know they bring the old experience heading you know what Fulham have done there initially I think in supporting Scott which they had to do because they know they've got a great young coach and then allowing that team to develop obviously they uh they recruited well in the end of the transfer window in coming out of August and he's now just started to build the momentum the performances are good and if you're Brighton and if you're Newcastle you're really really worried. Final thing the strangest moment of the weekend we did talk about it earlier the granite jacker mistake the strangest goal in the Premier League Chris Wood didn't really know how to celebrate it hit him on the hip and went in um the justification of playing from the back is obviously all the top teams are doing it so there's purpose there but do you have to risk a moment like that to keep this philosophy going well it's got to the point now Martin where I don't even highlight that as being a surprising mistake anymore I think the man who manages this club here is responsible for that I think it was 2011 in Rome was it the final no 2009 in Rome that was the final and the Barcelona Manchester United final yeah where I first saw first hand pk and I think it was Abidal no it was Jayaturi yeah it was Jayaturi split to like three yards off the touchline and Manchester United are playing I'm in the stand I'm injured at the time and me thinking what are they doing they're having a laugh aren't they we're going to counter attack on them we're going to win the game and they pulled us apart eventually and ever since that moment in my mind the sort of we then saw a few teams doing it after that and I used to say you can't copy Pep Guardiola you can't copy Barcelona but then more teams started to do it and now every team's done it and it really is credit to Pep I know that he's had a bad day today but the way in which he's influenced football over this last 10 12 years has been incredible you talk about a coach of a generation you look back over the years of great coaches you know the pressurizing and the pushing of the pitch you think Astralis Ferguson with the risk and the rotation of substitutes and the rotation of teams which is I think something that he introduced into certainly this you know the English football for the first time the great coaches influence eras not just with the results but with the style of play and the way in which they approach the game and what we saw yesterday is a goal now that we've seen quite a bit of and I think gone are the days now where pundits sit there and say I can't believe just knocking up the pitch get it up there and hit the big one we're probably not saying that anymore because the reality is we're not going to change the flow of football that exists we see Manchester United do it here today away at the Etihad you know Maguire and Lindelof split on the six yard box and Henderson playing it to them and popping it into McTominay at the edge of the box something that I would have felt wholly uncomfortable with during my football career because it was something that we were told not to do you know you don't go back and get it off your goalkeeper off four yards out you don't play inside your own box well you couldn't do it in those days from a goal kick it's part of it isn't it now from from goal kicks to do it and and it has changed the game it does at this level and it will be very interesting to see how it filters down from from this level I think there's a number of things one the pitches are absolutely outstanding which allow you to do it more than even 20 years ago I think the technical ability of the players and I think the philosophy of the coaches all these things mean it contributes towards and influence of Pep Guardiola in this last 10 years but a specific coach but then the other coaches off that thinking that's the right way to play and I think that ultimately the way in which the goalkeepers are now play better than probably some outfield players would have done 20 years ago the game's changed and it should change you know we should welcome these changes I think gone are the days now where I sit on Monday Night Football and would sort of criticise Xhaka I would criticise him for the execution but not for the principle so for me now what we see in this is that this is the normality that the players are going to play out from the back in their own box but the execution of what he was trying was wrong so the idea that he was given a bad pass by his goalkeeper he's given a bad pass by his teammate no I don't go along with that either I think reality of it is that that pass is expected to be given the coach to give that pass to Xhaka there and Xhaka just gets it wrong he doesn't scoop it you know he doesn't he doesn't either play either side of woods or just I think he tries probably just to sort of drift it over him he does with his um but it does it is exciting actually isn't it because that's the kind of goal that would never have happened before um the balls booted up to the halfway line and play commences from there now as commentators we have to watch every goal kick because it could easily happen well not easily happen but it it could happen well we watch every goal kick because we know something like that could happen and teams can pressurize you but even the last 15 minutes this match today Martin you know 15 years ago that would have been balls being lumped into the box 20 years ago that would have been balls being played into the box that would have been two big strikers maybe on the pitch it would have been a completely different ending to a game than we've witnessed here today you know that doesn't happen anymore you may see slightly different changes in shape but the game is different it's very different I think that um English players are benefiting from it I think what's happened in the last five or ten years in in the Premier League is that English coaches English players we're now starting to see Stephen Gerrard today we should mention him has won the Scottish league up in Scotland yeah Scott Parker you know we thought there was a worry five six seven eight years ago that English coaches were going into plunder tree that they weren't you know the best English minds if you like weren't going into the game but we're now starting to see that change Frank Lampard obviously has been at Chelsea this season um so I do think there is a developing English group of English coaches that are coming through John Terry's at Aston Villa Michael Carrick's on the bench here and there are many many more but also the English players technically are so much better than they were 20 years ago you know you a Gascoigne was a freak you know and he still is a freak in some ways but when we see players on the pitch like Phil Foden then you see Mason Mounts go the other night Mason Matt I think there are a lot more technically gifted players in the in central midfield areas number 10s wide players um different types of talent that maybe existed you know when I played for England even certainly before that where there were really great players don't get me wrong but they were being coached in a different area where a winger had to cross the ball winger doesn't cross the ball that much anymore he plays his way in he dribbles he so finds pockets um and the games and shoots on his stronger foot he does yeah inverted wingers yeah but it's something I never really had to face as a fullback I usually played against the left side a left-footed player more often than not so no it's the game has changed dramatically we're not gonna ever change that and why should we because it is the development of the game and I do think that the the influence of of Pep Guardiola of Jurgen Klopp um Maurizio Pochettino Jose Mourinho all these great coaches we've had if you could say to me about the Premier League in the last five or six years and why I think it's gone back up to being the one that's challenging in Europe year in year out again it's the influence of the coaches John we used to say about we need the best players in the world rather than going to Barcelona and Real Madrid I disagree we need the best coaches in the world coming to England because that influences our game influences our players in the Premier League but also influences the English coaches and the English players and it's more important that we have the best coaches than we have the best players because the best coaches will make the best players and and I think we've seen that in the last few years Conte coming to England as well Thomas Tuchel now obviously we're seeing a lot of really great coaches coming to the country I think I better let you go and celebrate what I mean what a super sunday you can't get much better than that I mean you just you just drift down you drift down the M60 you're thinking not not a lot's gonna happen you get in the car park you put your iPad on you think oh full of my playing well and then they go and win 1-0 you think well that's a good start to the day and then Manchester United go and beat City 2-0 and then you think yourself right I've got to go home I may even go on a little bit further on now you're that finishing beer that you sometimes have am I allowed to talk about this on podcast children listen but it could be one hell of a night in the Neville household there's only four of us I mean there's no one else coming and the kids go back to school tomorrow the kids go back to school it's actually my daughter's birthday today as well happy birthday Sophie she's 11 so yeah um I mean to be fair she's a massive United fan too early to start drinking obviously but but she's uh yeah she's had a good day I'm sure without me thanks Gary thank you