Sunday’s 196th edition of the Manchester derby will not live long in the memory.
Pep Guardiola took his wounded champions to Old Trafford to face a Manchester United side set for their worst finish of the Premier League era in a match that only the most devout purist would have enjoyed.
For City, the two dropped points were a blow in their chase for a Champions League place, while United will now prepare for Thursday night’s Europa League quarter-final first leg at Lyon, their only chance of salvaging something from the season.
Gary Neville - who ranked at no. 15 in FourFourTwo's list of the best Manchester United players ever - was on co-commentator and then punditry duty for Sky Sports and did not hold in his post-match assessment of the game and his former side’s approach following the blank.
Gary Neville's post-match rant in full, following Manchester United 0-0 Manchester City
David Jones: "They don’t have that feeling to win every game at home right now, do they?"
Gary Neville: “I sort of know what you're saying by the fact that obviously when they play against City they probably worry before they go into a game against Lyon in midweek that they're going to get a bit of a doing, but I don't think there was one player walked off that pitch at the end that was disappointed about drawing the game nil from either side.
“I think they all sort of walked off thinking ‘We're okay here and got away without making a mistake.’
“I think that was the sort of type of game it was really disappointing and I apologize for my cold commentary. Actually, I think I let it get to me, I was boring on there as well. That was drab. Honestly, just the whole game.
"There's part of me, I get what he's saying about it being that point in the season about City-United in a difficult moment, but this robotic nature of not leaving our positions of basically being micromanaged within an inch of our lives of not having any freedom to take a risk to go and try and win a football match is becoming an illness in the game.
“It's become a disease in the game and I think ultimately about Pep Guardiola and his teams over the last 10 years that's what his teams do but we're seeing poor imitations of that across the board now. United's goalkeeper rolling his foot on the ball and waiting for things to happen, that's not it, that's not what this club is, that's not what we do here.
“Liverpool don't do that. You've got to be a top team with tempo in your play, rhythm in your play, get the ball moving, shift it quickly and also I think from a United perspective, I get why he's gone deep, I get why he's gone back into what he called it a low block, but that's what we've seen from Jose Mourinho.
"It's what we've seen from Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, it's what we've seen from Erik ten Hag, they've all come in with the intention of playing high-press, high-energy football, but all end up going back to a low block in big games.
“I do understand why Ruben Amorim’s done that today with the players he's got because he hasn't got the players to adapt. They need five new players Manchester United straight away before I even think about the rest of it. The three up front are not good enough, the two behind and the one and the two wing backs, they're not good enough so they need five players. They need to serve him with five players who are good enough in this system to be able to play his system the way he wants.
“But the game today really was quite depressing for me because I think we're seeing a lot of these types of games and the Premier League is about excitement it's about thrill it's about risk and there was nothing like that in that game so that's not good."
Dave Jones: “But just on Manchester United, Gary, he said there candidly again, we need to do everything we need to improve everything but also he's in a rush, so has something got to give?
Gary Neville: “I actually think he's really honest because he says they need to improve everything you know and to fair, Patrick [Davison] came in with something along the lines of there’s too much to even list, but he is in a rush, he's realistic. I actually think his interviews are really honest, I think they're really open he hasn't got time.
“But what he's saying is at this moment in time is what we're seeing, he's not lying to us, he's not bullying us like some managers do to be fair to him, he's saying it's not very good we've got so much to improve and by the way I haven't got a lot of time to improve it or else you'll sack me.
“I think he's telling us the truth because next season, if we're in 13th at Manchester United or in the lower half of the table and he's had 12 to 18 months to try and get the players in place and he isn't and he is where he is today, he'll be under he'd be under pressure and he knows that. I think he's actually to be fair being really open honest about things.”
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