Gary Neville did not like what he heard from Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim earlier this week, saying the ‘excuse mentality’ is the ‘worst thing you can do in life.’
Amorim was speaking in a pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s clash with Sunderland.
The Red Devils went on to win the game 2-0, picking up a much needed victory thanks to goals from Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko.
Beforehand, the manager said that relentless criticism of him and his players is not helping the club.
Speaking in a press conference before the Sunderland win, Amorim said: ‘I understand when people think “what would this team be like in a different system?” Maybe this team would win more games. But if we don’t change certain things, we are not going to win titles, even if we change to 4-3-3 or 4-4-2.
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‘That is my point with the players. I don’t want to change your mind, but my players, I guarantee you, they are listening to all the opinions and they are putting that inside because we are not winning games. They have to believe in me. So my biggest problem is that my players believe in you guys when you say the problem with our team is the system.
‘I get crazy about that, because we need to play the same way, with the same power, with the same intensity, with the same focus. If you do that, it doesn’t matter about the system.
‘There is no one in the world who can read everything and listen to everything about people who understand football and not be influenced by that.
‘So I try to listen and to see all the games because I know that I see the game more times than all those guys [pundits] together, because they have to see all the games in the Premier League and give an opinion.
‘My opinion is completely different because I see the games, I see training, I understand my players, I understand what I’m doing and I follow my job this way because it’s impossible to survive in this club, listening to all the things.’
The suggestion that pundits are harming Manchester United’s performances did not sit well with Neville.
The former Red Devils defender says it is just part of the task of playing for an enormous club and if players cannot cope with criticism, they should not be playing for Manchester United.
He suggested the ‘excuse mentality’ of blaming the media is ‘the worst thing you can do.’
‘I’ve not got a lot of time for that,’ he said on the Gary Neville podcast. ‘If pundits are getting in your head you shouldn’t be playing for the club, simple as that.
‘Do people not remember Alan Hansen criticising us as young kids, saying “you can’t win anything with kids?” That was the greatest centre back in that moment, the most successful centre back of all time at that moment talking of us as if we were inferior and nowhere near good enough. Do they not think we got criticised during our football careers?
‘I’m sorry, you’re playing for Manchester United, it comes with the territory. You’ve got to step up.’
He added: ‘I never blamed anyone else when we lost football matches. I played in a dressing room whereby when you lost football matches you came in and said, “sorry about that today lads, I was a mess for that goal”, there was accountability.
‘Why would you blame other people when you’re losing matches? That’s a pretty big problem in itself.
‘I’ve not got any time [for the suggestion pundits influence players]. Excuse mentality, shortcuts, blaming other people, it’s the worst thing you can do that in life.
‘They need to concentrate on doing their job and doing it well and win football matches. That’s the only thing that’s going to shut people up and that’s winning football matches and they’ve not won anywhere near enough football matches.’