Football news - Gary Neville hits out at Manchester United board over Ole Gunnar Solskjaer problems
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Updated 07/10/2019 at 08:23 GMT
Gary Neville has come to the defence of former team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after Manchester United's latest defeat.
Gary Neville
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United took 41 minutes even to register a shot on target against Steve Bruce's Newcastle, who took the lead in the second half through a Matty Longstaff strike on his Premier League debut.
The Red Devils slumped to their third league defeat of the season with the 1-0 loss leaving them 12th in the Premier League table.
Solskjaer's position at the club has been called into question just seven months after he was given the permanent job as manager, but Neville is insistent the blame should be directed further up the hierarchy.
"Their recruitment has been woeful for many years and they've been all over the place in terms of different styles of managers who are bringing in players," Neville told Sky Sports.
"They now need to fix the style, fix a way of recruiting and go and get the players.
"They got three in the summer of the right type, they've done OK so far but they need another five or six."
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Manchester United's young players seem to be struggling with the pressure of the situation
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He added: "He’s sweeping up a mess that’s been created before him and, for me, he’s been put under pressure because of that.
“The results at the moment aren’t following him, he’s bringing a lot of young players through, he’s got injuries.
“It’s an immature team, it’s an immature squad, it’s even a young coaching staff.
“They need to hold the nerve, the club, and make sure they give him the money and the transfer windows that the previous managers that have had a stab have had.”
Solskjaer himself admitted that the coaches need to step up and provide some leadership within the group.
But Neville also criticised the tactical set-up of the team.
"Away from home, they're not set up to win in a sense of the mentality," Neville said.
"They let games drift, I think they play OK in games, but they're not ruthless, they're not clinical.
"The quality is not right, the depth of their squad is not good enough and they have taken a step back.
"[The Newcastle defeat] is a mirror of the West Ham game.
“When you don’t grab games by the scruff of the neck in the first half and you let games drift, you’re always susceptible to a goal.
“When the goal goes in, the game can just come away from you and that’s what’s happened for Manchester United.
“They’re not ruthless and clinical. They don’t see the danger of the game drifting every five minutes."
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