Football

Manchester United have a poor performance and a talking head goes viral for losing their rag. This is just a staple of sports content in 2026.

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It’s fitting that Gary Neville and Mark Goldbridge are under the same media banner now — Neville’s Overlap vehicle — because the baiting engagement-farming of the former Nottingham police officer, and the ‘Man United DNA’ lamenting soliloquies of one of the most decorated footballers in English history, are one and the same.

Every United setback ç and there have been plenty through five optimism-evaporating Premier League games so far — must have a soundbite and clicks. Sky Sports saw this coming a mile off when Neville labelled United’s performance immediately after halftime during Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Fulham at Craven Cottage as «the worst 15 minutes I’ve ever seen them play».

Considering the collapse to a 3-2 defeat from 2-0 up at home to Brighton and Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup four days earlier, it probably wasn’t United’s worst 15 minutes of the week.

MORE: Fulham vs. Man United score, highlights, stats and more

Explaining his vitriol on the Gary Neville Podcast immediately after the Fulham match, Neville returned to one of his criticisms from the match commentary.

«You can’t walk on a football pitch, I’m sorry. That’s why I got angry 15 minutes into the second half, because I’m not going to watch a group of players walk around. Particularly not in that shirt,» he said.

«I understand confidence; I understand belief; I understand that at times things aren’t going well and it’s been a difficult week. But you can run, and they weren’t running. I’m sorry, my eyes weren’t kidding me. As a football player, you’re alert; you’re on your toes. Defensively, you can be deep and compact, but you see players shuffling across, shuffling up two or three yards, but there was none of that.»

«That’s why I got angry 15 minutes into the second half, because I’m not going to watch a group of players walk around.»

Gary Neville was not happy with Manchester United’s performance against Fulham 🎙️❌ pic.twitter.com/1eYLszSVSe

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 20, 2026

Ever since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure in 2013, and in part because of the cult of The Manager that he understandably imbued at Old Trafford, the tale of useless, feckless players not trying hard enough for their storied jersey has been a common one, pedalled by Neville and others.

At times there have been grains of truth, but eventually the manager has to be sacked, most of the squad remains and — at best after periods of brief encouragement such as the second half of last season under Michael Carrick — those players get to be called wasters all over again soon enough.

Do Man United need to run more?

There is data to back up Neville’s assertion that Carrick’s United side aren’t running enough. They are 16th in the Premier League this season for average distance covered per game (111.9km) and 19th for the average number of high-speed runs per game (338.2). There are further damning running stats but, as Michael Cox pointed out in a piece for The Athletic, United’s table-topping neighbours Manchester City are below them on both metrics. When Enzo Maresca’s side battled to a derby victory with 10 men or engaged in a bonkers ‘we score, you score’ battle with Sunderland at the weekend, no one was doubting their commitment to the cause.

Carrick’s current midfield of Kobbie Mainoo and Youri Tielemans is at odds with the prevailing trends in the Premier League of hard-running duel monsters pounding across the pitch. Once Carlos Baleba is fit, he’ll give United a bit of that. 

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Manchester United have had more touches in the opposition box than any other Premier League team so far this season (182).

They have also seen their opponents have the fewest inside their own penalty area (92). pic.twitter.com/iUr2gUWuVC

— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) September 21, 2026

In the forward line, the nimble, positional rotations of Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha have not been as effective as they were last season. Still, the team’s 182 touches in the opposition box are the most of any Premier League side so far this season (as per Opta). Marcus Rashford, although creating plenty individually, is a more direct wide attacker. Amad Diallo has also been sorely missed. Carrick has also eschewed physicality up front by using Benjamin Sesko sparingly, partly because the Slovenian is still struggling with a lower-leg injury.

Playing a different style to the present vogue is not a problem, but playing it poorly for significant stretches of matches is — especially when teams impressing over the past week, such as Brentford, Brighton and Leeds United, do all that hard running that Neville and his contemporaries recognise as the good stuff. 

However, here’s a thought experiment. Imagine United continue their poor form after the international break — the fixtures are not overwhelmingly kind — and Carrick pays with his job. Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler would probably be somewhere near the top of the list of contenders. The German tactician is a fabulous young coach whose side plays a fearless, high-energy brand of attacking football.

Asking this Manchester United to play like that would be akin to sticking a new driver in your Winnebago and hoping it might win the Indy 500. This is not to say United do not have good players or players who care; they very obviously do. But in terms of building and maintaining a squad to perform consistently at the top end of English football, they are way off.

Getty Images

INEOS, Glazers set a sorry standard at Man United

Pretty much every observer with functioning grey matter recognised United’s main challenge this season would be retooling the squad for its return to Champions League football. The strain of that is yet to kick in, but they look way short. The Old Trafford brains trust of co-owner Jim Ratcliffe, CEO Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox have presided over transfer policy as an absurd parlour game. Last year: attack. This year: midfield. Next year: defence. 

Who on Earth builds squads like that? Certainly no one who really wants to be successful. United’s dire need at full-back has gone unaddressed, which directly impacts on Carrick’s prospects of fielding the fluid front four he prefers without adequate support from wide areas. United’s starting back four is the same defensive unit that stepped out in Erik ten Hag’s first season, a whole two new dawns ago. Tielemans is the only midfield recruit to see extended, meaningful action. Andrey Santos is languishing on the bench and Baleba is yet to kick a ball. So, the only area of the team United strengthened currently looks weaker. Genius! And still, Ratcliffe and his brilliant mind sees fit to offer his thoughts on how the UK government should run the country, sounding off like an elderly relative gone rogue on terrible Facebook groups.

United have spent less this summer than each of their rivals in the so-called Premier League ‘big six’. Newly promoted Hull City and Ipswich Town also spent more. INEOS’ penny-pinching, the lack of consecutive Champions League qualifications in the recent past, and United being about as good at selling players as they are at fixing the Old Trafford roof are all factors here. But this all fits in with a rudderless lack of vision from the top down that predates those presently in post.

MORE: The biggest-spending clubs of the transfer window — and those who kept it frugal

Opposition supporters will counter United’s relatively frugal summer with references to £1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) spent over the past 10 years. When the Glazers weren’t asset-stripping, they were signing off on absurd wages and transfer fees as if they would serve as a magic wand for the return of the promised land. United cannot plead poverty, but they can point to wasteful stupidity and neglect from the executive level downwards. That was Carrick’s inheritance, as it was his predecessors’, as it will be for whichever poor sap succeeds him. Until that changes, running around a little bit more on the banks of the River Thames won’t change a thing.

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