Gary Neville insists it is difficult to play as badly as Manchester United did in their 1-1 draw with Brentford on Saturday in a brutal takedown of Erik ten Hag’s side. The Red Devils icon says the performance was ‘dismal’ and quipped that a petition should have been started to hand back points to Brentford when Mason Mount opened the scoring.
United were woeful against Brentford, conceding a staggering 31 shots. But they thought they had stolen a victory when substitute Mount struck in the 96th minute.
Brentford defender Kristoffer Ajer equalised just a minute later in a dramatic finale. The Bees had created several chances and will feel they should have won the game comfortably against a tepid United.
The poor display surprised Neville, who had hoped that United would place pressure on Tottenham and Aston Villa in their hunt for fourth place in the Premier League. He told Sky Sports: “I watched them last night and couldn’t believe what I was watching. I thought they would put a bit of pressure on Tottenham and Villa in the run-in. It’s actually really difficult to play that badly.
“Really, it is, you know? I can’t think of any point in that game, maybe the first few minutes, where they did anything well at all. It was a horrible performance to the point where when Mason Mount scored, I think we may have had to start a petition to give Brentford two points back.
“It was an absolute robbery. But then Brentford score. I can’t explain that performance, I’ve no idea where it comes from. Very worrying that you can go to that level of low. You know you can play badly in football, you know you sometimes don’t feel quite right.
“But that was a dismal, dismal effort in an attempt to play football, in an attempt to work as hard as you possibly can. When you give the ball away, their reaction is non-existent. They really are one of the worst teams out of possession.”
Neville compared United’s performance to that of Arsenal, who pressed and harried title rivals Manchester City into a goalless stalemate on Sunday.
The former defender continued: “What we’ve seen from Arsenal today, the levels of defending compactness, the work ethic of all the front players to be a cohesive unit and defend together, there’s none of that [from United].
