Gary Neville snubbed Jamie Carragher live on TV when the Liverpool icon taunted him about a bold previous statement the pundit made, while the visitors at Old Trafford were leading 3-0 against an underwhelming Manchester United.
Neville previously insisted that former Reds boss Jurgen Klopp would swap United’s midfield for Liverpool, but after criticising the Red Devils quartet of Casemiro, Kobbie Mainoo, Bruno Fernandes and Toby Collyer who all played, that comment was brought back up.
Carragher asked Neville: “Would you still swap the midfields?” Only for his colleague to ignore him and continue making a point. When Neville finished, Carragher then wryly added: “Now you’ve finished are you going to answer my question?”
Just over a year ago, Liverpool under their previous boss Klopp revamped their entire midfield with the additions of Alexis Mac Allister, Dominic Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch.
Only Endo did not start in the drubbing in Manchester, but Neville was not won over upon their arrival to Liverpool. He said on The Overlap: “When you look at the actual players, let’s take United as an example; Fernandes, (Mason) Mount, Casemiro, (Christian) Eriksen. I think that Jurgen Klopp would swap his midfield now for United’s…”
That take has left Neville with egg on his face as his regular dismantling of the United midfield has continued since the bold statement, once again evidenced by Liverpool‘s trio of Mac Allister, Gravenberch and Szoboszlai getting the better of their opponents in the middle of the pitch.
The gap between the two midfields were further evidenced in their transfer business. Erik ten Hag felt the need to add Sofyan Amrabat to his options late on deadline day a year ago, but the Moroccan failed to impress and even more reinforcements were required.
Scott McTominay, one of Ten Hag’s most reliable performers last season, had to be sacrificed in order for Manuel Ugarte to come in and effectively replace Casemiro.