Gary Neville has told Erik ten Hag that he needs to reconfigure his midfield for Manchester United’s next game after it was overrun in the narrow win over Wolves
United opened their Premier League campaign with a 1-0 victory at Old Trafford, but the match was far from straightforward. Wolves caused the hosts lots of problems, spurned several good openings and felt aggrieved not to be awarded a penalty for a foul by Andre Onana on Sasa Kalajdzic.
Raphael Varane’s header proved the difference, but United were fortunate not to concede a goal. Their midfield was vulnerable on the counter-attack, with Casemiro finding himself isolated, with Mason Mount and Bruno Fernandes often caught high up the pitch.
United travel to Tottenham on Saturday and Neville thinks a change in the middle of the park is needed. The former United full-back wants Ten Hag to drop winger Alejandro Garnacho for Scott McTominay, so that Casemiro has another more defensively-minded player alongside him and Mount can operate from the left wing.
“There were some signs in pre-season that with Bruno and Mount caught forward Casemiro could become exposed,” Neville wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I think they will work hard on it Pre Spurs as that can’t happen again.”
A fan then asked: “Do you think Ten Hag will revert to a Bruno out wide in the big games once someone like Amrabat is signed or Mainoo comes back from injury?”
Neville then suggested Mount would be moved up top alongside Marcus Rashford and Antony, with McTominay deployed deeper next to Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes in front. The Sky Sports pundit went on to suggest he “can’t see” Garnacho retaining his place in north London.
Neville added that he believed Mount would drift inside from the left flank to create a box in midfield, allowing Shaw to overlap. Garnacho started against Wolves, but struggled to get much out of Wolves right-back Nelson Semedo.
Another supporter wrote: “Surprised so many are putting McTominay in. It’ll be Eriksen, surely?” Neville admitted it “easily could be” as Ten Hag wants a midfielder ‘that can play’, before adding: “However the 23 shots against and the openness of the midfield can’t be ignored.”
United have been busy in the transfer window, paying £60m for Mount from Chelsea, £43.8m for Ajax from Inter Milan and £72m for Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta. But Neville thinks another two deals need to be done before the window closes on September 1.
Asked to rate United’s work in the transfer window, he said: “I’d say currently a solid 6.5 out of 10. We don’t know fully how the 3 signings are doing to do so it could shift up or down. I wanted a proven striker with Hojland and another midfielder. Let’s see what happens”.
£43.8m for Ajax from Inter Milan , don`t you mean Onana.