Gary Neville has criticised Casemiro for his role in Brighton’s late winning goal against Manchester United , accusing him of a “lack of concentration” as he left his position at the back post. Erik ten Hag’s side suffered their first defeat of the season with a 2-1 loss to the Seagulls. Former United forward Danny Welbeck scored an opener in the first half, which was cancelled out by Amad after the break. However, Joao Pedro’s stoppage-time header sealed the win for Brighton, adding to the Red Devils’ woes after a challenging campaign last season. The team’s defensive abilities were once again under scrutiny. Neville believes this result puts significant pressure on Ten Hag early in the season, particularly with an upcoming match against Liverpool . He singled out Casemiro for criticism, noting that the Brazilian had abandoned his post at the back before moving into midfield, leaving Pedro unmarked to score the decisive goal.
Gary Neville said “Really depressing end to the game, I thought a draw would’ve been half acceptable but to lose the game, it puts an awful lot of pressure, I think, on Erik ten Hag and on towards the game next week against Liverpool,”
Neville also commented on United’s struggle in the first half without a clear centre forward, with Joshua Zirkzee only brought on for the second half.
Gary Neville said “wasted 45 minutes, Then in the second half, the first goal as well was poor defensively, that last goal, I’ve just watched it then coming up to the gantry. When you clear from a corner, you’ve got to still defend as you’re defending the second phase of a corner. I think particularly if you watch Casemiro, it looks to me, I’ve only watched it once back on the replay, it looks like he leaves his position at that back post and runs back towards central midfield. But then it leaves an acre of space in that back zone where there are three Brighton players queuing up. Lack of concentration, lack of focus and it does put some pressure on them.”
After the match, Ten Hag was openly critical about his team’s performance, conceding that he had hoped for better execution and labelled both goals conceded against Brighton as “soft”.
Ten Hag said “There was more than one mistake. We have to talk about it, We were close to winning this game, but definitely shouldn’t lose the game. Today we should do better. In the Community Shield we should do better. Both goals are very soft goals. We should have done better. I have seen some good parts in the game and other parts… early in the second half we should have had more control of the game. In both boxes we should be more clinical and aggressive.”
