Gary Neville hits out at 'disease in the game' in Sky Sports rant
Gary Neville has not held back with his assessment of the Manchester derby
Gary Neville launched an astonishing rant about the standard of quality on show during the Manchester derby.
Manchester United and Manchester City played out a largely forgettable goalless draw at Old Trafford on Sunday in a result that isnât particularly great for either side.
For Man City, they missed the chance to move into fourth place in the Premier League table and could find themselves out of the top six come Monday night if Newcastle beat relegation threatened Leicester City.
Meanwhile Man United may have moved back into 13th place, but a top-half finish is looking a long shot now.
In a game of very few chances and lacking any real urgency, Neville was very critical about the approach from both sides as he offered an apology for his efforts whilst on commentary duty.
âI donât think there was one player who walked off the pitch disappointed about drawing the game 0-0, from either side,â Neville said on Sky Sports. âI think they all sort of walked off thinking âweâre okay here we got away without making a mistakeâ.
âIt was really disappointing, I apologise for my co-commentary, I think I let it get to me, I was boring on there as well. That was drab.
âI get what he [Ruben Amorim] is saying about it being that point in the season, with City and United being in a difficult moment.
âBut this robotic nature of not leaving our positions, being micro-managed within an inch of our lives, not having any freedom to take a risk to go and try and win a football match is becoming an illness in the game, itâs becoming a disease in the game.
â Ultimately when you think about Pep Guardiola and his teams over the last 10 years, thatâs what his teams do but we are seeing poor imitations of that across the board now.
"Unitedâs goalkeeper rolling his foot on the ball and waiting for things to happen. Thatâs not it.
"Thatâs not what this club is and not what we do here. Liverpool donât do that. Youâve got to be a top team with tempo in your play, rhythm in your play."