Gary Neville Podcast: Liverpool need to wake themselves up, but Man Utd look happy again | Football News

Liverpool need to wake up after a slump in form, Sky Sports’ Gary Neville said in the latest The Gary Neville Podcastwhile Manchester United looked happy on the pitch again.

Liverpool were beaten 3-0 by Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday in another worrying performance for the Reds. They have yet to win a league game in 2023.

Neville says Liverpool’s players need to improve and although they may have “credit” after a couple of years of success, the questions should begin.

At Sky Sports The pundit said in his podcast: “Defensively, they are shambolic. Individually, together, they are very easy to play against. It is not going to be perfect in front for them either, [Cody] steel, [Darwin] Nunez and [Mo] Salah hasn’t finished in the top three yet and it may take some time.

“The other team was in a mess and scored a bad goal. It’s almost the first time I’ve seen after a game where Jurgen Klopp almost apologised.

“They were nowhere, it was almost a ‘where did they start’ kind of reaction after the game. There were international players in the back four – in fact, all of them – and none of them were good enough.

“There’s no excuse for that. There are other teams with injuries that are better defensively.

“I don’t know why he has gone to pieces like that. There will be people who say ‘this happened in the seventh year at Dortmund’, but I reject all that nonsense.

“There are ownership things to sort out, maybe there are other clubs who think ‘we have to spend more money and we have to rebuild’, but for now, I just think you get the best from the players you have now – and Liverpool have a good squad and there are a few injuries, that’s a factor, but the players out there still need to do better than they are now.

“It’s not good enough from Liverpool and what they’ve achieved over the last few years. It’s below standard. They need to wake up.

“The way I see it is that if you get enough credit, it will be easy for you to count for a while because you have a little right – you don’t go overboard with Man City. [after defeat against Spurs] because of that.

“But it’s getting to that point with Liverpool where there are signs and performances that are worrying and individual performances are below that level.”

‘Man Utd compete and look happy’

For Neville’s former team, Man Utd, things are starting to look better. They won 2-1 at Crystal Palace on Saturday – despite Casemiro being sent off – and are now three points behind second-placed Manchester City.

Neville said the players are starting to look happier on the pitch after a difficult few years, comparing it to Man City who seem to be out of sorts at the moment.

“I don’t think Man Utd will get there [to the Premier League title], I think they will fall short. With Eriksen’s injury as well, he’s not good enough,” he said.

“But they are doing well, they are competing and looking happy again, and that’s really big. Manchester United players should look happy on the pitch if you are a Man Utd fan. I’m sure Everton fans think the same and many other clubs that have had a hard time, you see Newcastle and how they are happy again.

“I don’t think they’ll win, I never thought they’ll win. I think Man City will win, but I’d be worried if I were them. United look really happy, City at the moment. looks a bit moody. I thought Spurs were a bit last week, but have come out of it and City must come out of it too.

“City seem to need the manager, the players and the coaching staff in a room and say ‘Come on, let’s speak our minds’ because there seems to be a bush there.

“But United look together, look solid and look like the trajectory is going up… they’re in a good position and there’s a big game coming up in a few weeks against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final. it’s about what both clubs have been through. There are a lot of games, but there’s a lot to play for.”

Nev at Chelsea – ‘I’m not sure about the eight-year contract’

Neville was also at Stamford Bridge on Friday Night Football as multi-million pound Chelsea squad drew 0-0 with local rivals Fulham.

But it was when the Blues spent January that Neville was unsure, particularly the length of some of the contracts the players were offered.

“With Chelsea, there must be time. They need time to sleep in the new owner of the club, new principles, new manager and you have new players,” he said. The Gary Neville Podcast.

“So there is everything new and there is time needed before anything else. But you can not get away from spending this staggering – I said ‘jaw-dropping’ there.

“I’m not sure about it. It doesn’t feel right to me in the sense of the right approach? Normally, you might spend two or three hundred million, four or five beds in, and then you can bring. in another couple of summers after – it was an 18-month process, but it was all done in one hit.

“You might get the same result at the same speed so we’ll have to wait and see now.

“I have signed a seven-year contract, but what I want is that I am from the city, I like the club and I will not leave. It can be done with a handshake and it will be respected by both sides.

“But I didn’t buy this eight-year contract [at Chelsea]. The argument for them is to beat FFP, I ask for it and that’s the reason for doing it, but they say it’s a strategy.

“When Chelsea went crazy in the summer, I was called crazy with the way they did it. Now, when they do it twice, it’s not crazy, it’s strategy – what they do.

“When they give their briefings and they talk about long contracts that lock young players in for eight years and have certainty, it’s a big risk.

“There is no certainty with an eight-year contract. Let Mudryk become Messi in four years and Chelsea can say ‘well we’ve been locked in for another four years at a lower wage’.

“Mudryk will then start, his agent will start, he will down tools and say ‘I want more money’ and he has to pay Messi’s salary, or he will have unhappy players. for the last four years who will feel exploited because of him signed an eight-year contract when he was 20 or 21.

“In football, in this country with players coming from international lands, I don’t see how an eight-year contract can be honored if the player develops into something bigger than he is now.

“I don’t see the benefit of an eight-year contract. If you sign a five-year contract and the player does well after two years, you still have three years.

“I just don’t understand [eight-year deals]. I don’t know, I don’t see where it brings any real benefit to the club other than FFP and accounting benefits.

“I struggle a bit to think that the wheel can be reinvented and they have found something really smart that no one else has noticed. They can look like smart people in two years, or they can look pretty stupid. It will be one or the other, I don’t think we will get in between.

“We’ll have to give it time to see how it goes.”