Manchester United legend explains what Red Devils’ next stage of development must be

Manchester United struggle to see off West Ham

Manchester United faced off with West Ham on Sunday evening.

The tie marked a huge one in the race for a Champions League place. Man United were aware that a victory would all-but guarantee their top-4 status.

As for West Ham, a victory at Old Trafford would have seen them move up to 4^th in the English top-flight.

But, when all was said and done, a fairly uneventful 90 minutes eventually saw Man United come away with a 1-0 win, after Craig Dawson headed a Bruno Fernandes corner into his own net:

Own goal 😅

Craig Dawson puts through his own goal and Man Utd have the lead at Old Trafford

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Gary Neville explains what Man United’s next stage of development needs to be

Whilst United, in the end, got the job done, though, Sunday’s clash again highlighted one of the club’s main issues under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The Red Devils are superb on the counter, and can pick big teams apart whilst playing on the back foot.

However, when a team – like West Ham did on Sunday – sit deep and invite United to break them down, they struggle a fair bit.

In turn, speaking after the Old Trafford clash, Gary Neville voiced the opinion that his former side’s next stage of development must be to improve against sides who sit in deep blocks:

“We know what Manchester United are: they do struggle to break down teams, if you think about how City dismantle teams who sit deep against them, United aren’t capable of that yet and it has been something we can quite obviously see, when they play on the counterattack, they’re a lot better.

“They’ve got to get better playing against teams who really sit back in those deep blocks. I think that’s where the next stage of the development has got to come, because if they don’t start doing that better, they won’t win this Premier League because teams will do that against them as Man City have found out.

Neville continued:

“It’s about having higher quality in the final third. If you think about the compact nature of all teams now when they want to be, particularly the teams in the bottom half, you just need fantastic players. If you look at City – Bernardo Silva, Gundogan, Foden, Mahrez – they have five or six of them. I can only really think of Fernandes and Pogba who can open a defence up in tight situations, the rest of them rely upon space to operate.”

🗣️ “Manchester United do need to win a trophy this season”@GNev2 believes tonight’s win over West Ham means Man Utd can focus firmly on two big cup games next week 🏆 pic.twitter.com/y8vrSoMiQ6

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 14, 2021

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This article was edited by Conor Laird.

Source: 101greatgoals.com