Gary Neville gives damning assessment of Erik ten Hag's Man Utd selection for Aston Villa trip
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has made some big decisions with his starting XI for a crunch Premier League clash away to Aston Villa and Gary Neville has given his verdict
by Tom Victor · The MirrorGary Neville compared Erik ten Hag's team selection for Manchester United's trip to Aston Villa to a manager at the end of his tenure throwing youngsters into the fold.
Ten Hag has responded to Thursday's 3-3 draw with Porto by dropping Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez to the bench. Harry Maguire will partner Jonny Evans at Villa Park, with United's manager also leaving summer signings Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee on the bench.
United's manager goes into Sunday's game under significant pressure, with co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe refusing to give the Dutchman his full backing. Ratcliffe insisted he still considers Ten Hag to be a good coach, but explained his management team - including CEO Omar Berrada and sporting director Dan Ashworth - would make the call on Ten Hag's future.
Ten Hag's team travel to Villa Park sat 14th in the table, though they have a chance to climb into the top half with a victory if results elsewhere also go their way. A defeat could prompt more calls to sack the manager, though, and Neville's statements on the starting line-up were telling.
"I actually at one point thought Gary and Phil Neville might be full-backs!" joked Neville, who was speaking to Sky Sports from the NBC studio as he prepared to cover the match for the American broadcaster. "I must admit, if you think about the fact that Manchester United have six centre-backs, if you just said to me five or six weeks ago that you'd end up with Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire... at centre-back six or seven games in, I'd have said there must be four injuries to the others.
"The fact that De Ligt and Martinez have been dumped to the bench, you can't really argue with the decision from a footballing perspective. "Because if you watched the goals United conceded in Porto, they were horrific from De Ligt and Martinez's point of view.
United's return of nine points from seven games last season marked their joint-worst start in the Premier League era. Anything other than a win against Villa - who are coming off a win against Bayern Munich in the Champions League - would set a new unwanted record.
Has Erik ten Hag got his selection right? Have your say in the comments section
After United co-owner Ratcliffe kept faith in Ten Hag, the manager was backed to the tune of £200m in the summer transfer window. However, just one of his five senior signings starts at Villa Park, with former Ajax star De Ligt taken out of the firing line after he was slammed by fans in the light of the Porto draw.
"Just optically, looking at it from the point of view of the plan, the plan was this season for Erik ten Hag to establish his style of play and shift the team up the pitch," Neville added. "Make them more aggressive, make them more in the style of what he wanted to implement. United now are going to be camped on the edge of their box with Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans. This is not the plan.
"So for me it feels a little bit like throwing the baby out with the bath water. A little bit like when a manager is struggling at the end of his tenure, when basically they throw the young players in, and it's like 'I'm going to pick the players who I like and the ones that I can trust' - it feels a little bit like that today."
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