Gary Neville believes summer signing Bryan Mbeumo is one of three Manchester United forwards who are ‘not good finishers’.
Mbeumo has enjoyed a promising start to his career at Old Trafford following a £65m move from Brentford last summer.
The Cameroon international scored 20 Premier League goals in his final season in west London and while he is unlikely to hit that figure this term, there has still been encouraging signs.
Mbeumo, 26, has netted seven goals in his 17 appearances for United – the most of any Red Devils player this season.
Ruben Amorim’s summer signing has been widely praised for the impact he has had at the Theatre of Dreams but Neville believes he needs to improve his ‘rash’ and ‘wild’ finishing.
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Mbeumo is not alone in this regard, however, with Neville claiming the same applies for fellow United forwards Matheus Cunha and Mason Mount.
Cunha has only contributed two goals since his £62.5m summer move from Wolves, while ex-Chelsea star Mount has never been a consistent goalscorer for the Red Devils, scoring seven in 61 games.
‘It sounds crazy but I was thinking about Mbeumo, Cunha and Mount during the last game [United’s 4-4 draw with Bournemouth],’ Neville said on The Overlap.
‘I think that’s actually a pretty good front-three, you wouldn’t like to play against them.
‘But none of them are really good finishers. Mbeumo had a really challenging time on Monday night and generally his finishing is quite wild, it’s rash.’
Ex-Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright agreed with Neville’s assessment of Mbeumo, adding: ‘It’s wild, yeah.
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‘It’s the kind of finishing that suggests he’s anxious but he doesn’t need to be. He looked anxious and rash to me.
‘I don’t know if that’s because of the pressure he’s under but it’s a massive sign of a lack of confidence so he probably needs an easy chance right now.’
While Neville was disappointed by Manchester United’s finishing against Bournemouth, he took a number of positives from the high-scoring draw.
‘It was the first I’ve watched United for a long time, certainly since Ruben Amorim took over, that I liked what I saw,’ the Old Trafford legend said.
‘The Everton and West Ham games [a 1-0 defeat and a 1-1 draw] were quite depressing, both in terms of the results and the performances.
‘The fans left those games having seen nothing. I thought against Bournemouth at least the fans would have left with a bit of a buzz and would want to go back.’
The 4-4 draw with Bournemouth leaves Manchester United sixth in the Premier League, two points outside the Champions League places and ten behind leaders Arsenal.
United travel to Birmingham on Sunday to face an Aston Villa team who are threatening to mount a surprise Premier League title challenge.
Unai Emery’s side have won nine games in a row to climb to third in the table, just three points behind their manager’s former club Arsenal.
This fixture ended goalless last season, while Manchester United beat Villa at home on the final day to prevent the Midlands club from qualifying for the Champions League.
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