Gary Neville blames three Manchester United players for Newcastle opening goal

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Manchester United suffered a bad start in the Carabao Cup fourth round clash with Newcastle.

As is so often the case with Manchester United games this season, there is a brief burst of energy in the opening 10 minutes which amounts to nothing, and then the opposition go on to take the lead.

This pattern repeated against Newcastle at Old Trafford, with Almiron breaking the deadlock with a 28th minute opener.

It was a quick counter-attacking goal from Newcastle, who went on to double their lead in the 36th minute through Lewis Hall with an impressive volley from the edge of the box.

Dalot, Garnacho and Mount blamed

If the second goal was an excellent piece of skill Manchester United could not do too much about, the first goal was totally avoidable.

On commentary for Sky Sports, Gary Neville picked out three players he believed were to blame for failing to stop Tino Livaramento’s burst forward from right-back which set Almiron up for the finish.

The former United right-back blamed Alejandro Garnacho, Mason Mount and Diogo Dalot.

He said: “Garnacho just gets outmuscled. He goes past Mason Mount like he’s not there, Dalot’s sleeping and Almiron’s not.”

Neville has a point. United had three different chances to stop this move, and lost the battles for every single challenge. It was so poor.

Once they went behind the players’ heads dropped. This team struggle to score goals, so you can understand why they felt it was suddenly such an uphill battle.

Manchester United were dysfunctional

Newcastle fans sang ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ towards Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag even before their second goal went in.

Ten Hag won’t be fired, but this was the type of performance from a team which can get managers sacked.

It was a game lacking discipline, and littered with individual errors from players losing individual battles and not doing their jobs effectively, with attacks breaking down, and soft goals conceded.

At one point on commentary, Gary Neville described Manchester United’s defending as ‘schoolboy’, even comparing it to an under-nines team.

The first half was particularly pathetic from United, with the team’s ineffective attack never looking like turning around the deficit. This is a team with major problems.