Gary Neville’s pre-season utterances concerning Liverpool’s midfield have resurfaced on social media after Manchester United’s poor start to the season.
Liverpool lead United by seven points after only five matches played in the Premier League season, with 10 places separating the sides in the division. The Red Devils began with a nervy 1-0 home win over Wolves, though have since suffered three defeats in their last four outings to plummet down the table.
Jurgen Klopp’s side, on the other hand, have only dropped points away at Chelsea on the opening weekend of the season and have defeated Newcastle United, Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Wolves.
Plenty had been said as to how Liverpool would adapt to having a new-look midfield, which has seen key players depart during the summer and four new arrive, though the Reds have so far risen to this challenge with confidence.
Speaking ahead of the 2023/24 season commencing, Neville was less convinced by the signings of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
He boldly claimed Klopp would want to trade his options for those at the disposal of Erik ten Hag.
“When you look at the actual players, let’s take United as an example: Fernandes, Mount, Casemiro, Eriksen. I think Klopp would swap his midfield now for United’s,” said the ex-United right-back.
By contrast, it has been United’s midfield that has looked the weaker of the two and became apparent once more on Saturday afternoon as Brighton cut through this area of the pitch with ease en route to a commanding 3-1 victory at Old Trafford.
Liverpool fans have been keen to remind Neville of his remarks, which Jamie Carragher has also taken pleasure from. Carragher shared the clip on his Twitter page, having been involved in the initial debate with Neville on Sky Sports’ ‘The Overlap’ at the start of August.
This is not the first time Neville has seen a pre-season prediction relating to Liverpool cause a stir, however.
Ahead of the 2019/20 campaign, he famously said: “I can guarantee you as clear as day, Manchester United will win again. They’ll probably win the league before Liverpool, in my opinion. And that’s not being disrespectful, they’ll probably win the league before Liverpool.”
Klopp’s side would of course win the title by an 18-point margin that year and ended 33 points clear of United.
