Gary Neville described Manchester United’s players as “whingebags” and criticised Cristiano Ronaldo for failing to applaud the club’s supporters, while interim manager Ralf Rangnick said his players lacked aggression during a 1-1 draw at Newcastle.
Edinson Cavani’s second-half equaliser rescued a point for United against relegation-threatened Newcastle, who had scored first through Allan Saint-Maximin.
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United produced one of their worst performances of a disappointing season, though, prompting the club’s former captain Neville to condemn their display in his role as a pundit for Sky Sports.
“They are a bunch of whingebags, their arms were in the air,” Neville said. “They got the last manager the sack and they will get a lot of managers the sack [playing] like that.”
Neville also hit out at Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes after the pair left the pitch and headed up the tunnel immediately after the final whistle.
“I think there’s something wrong in there,” he said. “You cannot run off the pitch at the end of the game and you have to clap the fans.
“It’s devastating for the younger players if those two best players in the team are looking at the others like you aren’t good enough.”
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Rangnick, who extended his unbeaten start as interim manager to four games, was also unimpressed by his team’s performance.
“I didn’t like the performance at all,” he said. “Today we didn’t control the game apart from a few moments. It’s all about energy, physicality and who wins the second balls.
“In all those areas we weren’t at our best. The good thing is we got a point but the performance needs to be better.”
Rangnick, who replaced the sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer earlier this month, was critical of United’s lack of aggression against Eddie Howe’s team.
“You have to be ready and able to win those direct duels and this was not that often the case,” Rangnick said. “Today was not a question of body language, it was a question of body physicality.
“If you want to be competitive here you have to get physical and this was not the case in many parts of the game. Today it was not a question of formation — it was a question of how aggressive we were.
“In three days we have the next game. We can do better but we have to do it. We shouldn’t look for excuses — we need to be better and get more physical.
“I was not happy with our performance with the ball or when we had to press. What kind of energy mode do we play with the ball and without the ball?”
The result left the Old Trafford side seventh in the standings on 28 points from 17 games, behind sixth-placed West Ham on goal difference, while Newcastle stayed 19th on 11 points from 19 matches.
Source: espn.co.uk
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