Gary Neville says it was ‘obvious’ that Manchester United’s game-plan ‘wasn’t quite working’ against ten-man Manchester City and Michael Carrick should have sent Benjamin Sesko on at half-time.
Erling Haaland found the net with a controversial goal to silence Old Trafford in the 60th minute and the strike proved decisive as City won 1-0 to continue their 100 per cent start in the Premier League.
City had earlier gone a man down after Phil Foden was given his marching orders for a petulant kick on Bruno Fernandes, which will see the midfielder suspended for three matches.
But the visitors dug deep and came away with surely their most satisfying win since Enzo Maresca took over the reins from Pep Guardiola, a result that moved the club level on points with champions Arsenal at the summit.
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Haaland and Co lock horns with Norwich in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Thursday night before returning to top-flight action at home to Sunderland in a week’s time.
United, meanwhile, who have since received an official apology for Haaland’s goal from Pro Ref, will look to get back to winning ways versus Brighton in the cup ahead of their trip to Fulham next weekend.
‘I’d like to think that they’re not concentrating and focussing on the refereeing decisions and they’re focussing on the work they need to do on improving their performance,’ Neville said on Sky Sports when asked what his former club should take away from their latest setback.
‘What you don’t want to do is give football players or anybody excuses. That’s it.
‘So they’ve got to go out there tomorrow, or whenever it is that they start training again, and begin to think about what happens when they go down to ten men again.’
‘We can’t just run out of ideas, be complacent and not shift the ball quickly.’
For a fourth league game on the spin, Matheus Cunha was given the nod up front by Carrick – and Sesko will no doubt have been disappointed given he had come on and scored United’s second in their 2-2 draw with Everton previously.
The Slovenia striker was sent on in place of Youri Tielemans in the 67th minute against City, but was unable to have the same sort of impact in the contest as he had done a week earlier.
‘I think Michael Carrick maybe will reflect upon the fact that he could have made changes earlier,’ Neville added.
‘When you know for 20 minutes before half-time that it’s not going your way with 11 men, I think then Sesko should have come on straightaway to be a bit more of a battering ram up top.
‘It was obvious it wasn’t quite working.
‘He made the substitution eventually after 67 minutes which only left Sesko with 25 minutes so things like that will be reflected on and analysed I’m sure. That’s what they’ve got to concentrate on.’
In his post-match analysis, Neville’s long-time team-mate and captain Roy Keane urged Carrick and his squad not to ‘panic’ despite their shaky start to the new campaign.
‘It’s been a poor start, no doubt about it. Today was a setback but I still think the players will react,’ the iconic former United captain said.
‘They’ve got a cup game during the week then they’ve got Fulham and those games are winnable on paper.
‘No, there’s certainly no need to panic but obviously the real challenge for Carrick and his staff, when he got the job permanently, people wanted a good start and he’s not had that.
‘No doubt there will be pressure after today’s game but I would say just keep your heads.’
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