Gary Neville slams Man Utd’s setup vs. Spurs: ‘You wouldn’t see this in under-9s football. Look at the space in midfield’

Gary Neville slammed Manchester United after they went 1-0 down against Tottenham, claiming the way manager Ruben Amorim set them up was “awful”.

United had been decimated by injuries heading into the game, with eight of the nine players named on the bench teenagers. With Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte and Toby Collyer out injured and Christian Eriksen ill, Bruno Fernandes dropped back into midfield alongside Casemiro.

And it was in midfield that Neville felt United were found wanting for James Maddison’s goal, with the Spurs star firing home on the rebound after Andre Onana saved Lucas Bergvall’s initial effort.
The distance between the two centre midfielders for United is all wrong,” Neville fumed while on commentary for Sky Sports. “Look where Fernandes is, look where Casemiro is. It breaks all rules of football.

“It’s absolute madness. The structure of the team is awful. The two in midfield are split. It’s embarrassing. You wouldn’t see this in under-9s football. Look at that space in midfield! Shocking.”

Amorim was left fuming after the goal, but Neville insisted that he was to blame. “Amorim is really angry. He is going mad at his bench. He is shouting at people,” Neville continued. “I’m not sure what he is angry about. The biggest problem l can see is how this team are set up.”
Amorim has largely used Fernandes further forward during his reign, while Casemiro’s start against Spurs was his first in the Premier League since December. Speaking in January, Amorim claimed the Brazilian was no longer able to cope with the physical demandsof English football.
Amorim said: “Sometimes it’s a lot of that. It’s also a player’s moment. We understand that Casemiro has other things nowadays. The intelligence he has, understanding the game, understanding where the ball is going to fall but we’re in a league that I can see, even in European competitions, the difference in intensity is big.

“And so, I feel that this team also needs players with a very high intensity. And sometimes we don’t have that and sometimes that difference in characteristic can lead one player or another to play.
Even the fact that the group has a certain characteristic as a group. I needed some players in certain positions with a slightly different pace. But we all know the quality Casemiro has and everything he won. And so, I have nothing to say about that. It’s just a choice.”
Neville’s criticism is pretty brutal, but not entirely unfair given how open United were in midfield. Amorim’s setup clearly didn’t work, especially with Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro struggling to control the game. The gap between them allowed Maddison and Bergvall to exploit the space far too easily.

Casemiro’s decline in intensity has been a talking point for months, and Amorim himself acknowledged it earlier this year. His return to the starting lineup was always going to be a gamble, but with Ugarte, Mainoo, and Collyer unavailable, Amorim had limited options. Fernandes dropping deeper was a necessary adjustment, but it left United without their usual creative spark further forward.

The real question is whether Amorim should have adjusted tactically to protect the midfield more—maybe adding an extra body in the center instead of leaving it so open. Do you think Amorim should have gone with a different approach, or was he simply left with no good choices given the injuries?