“A lot more pain” – Gary Neville foretells disastrous outcome at Man Utd | OneFootball

Manchester United legend Gary Neville fears his former club has yet to hit rock bottom while making ominous predictions for the rest of the season.

The Red Devils had a calamitous start of the season under Erik ten Hag who got the sack in October. But while the club showed some improvement during the brief reign of caretaker coach Ruud van Nistelrooy, things rapidly fell apart following Ruben Amorim’s arrival.

The club’s results somehow further degenerated with the 39-year-old at the helm, with the Reds now lying in a miserable 13th place in the Premier League standings. An interesting stat suggests Amorim is enduring the worst start of a managerial stint at United in 93 years.

While Neville was initially excited about the 39-year-old’s appointment, he now feels less assured about the club’s future under the former Sporting CP coach.

In fact, the former club captain is greatly concerned about the end of the season, suggesting things could even take a turn for the worse, as the players could begin to question the manager’s ideas if the results don’t improve swiftly.

“I thought it would get better when Ruben Amorim came in, the enthusiasm of him and the new system, the players would buy into and we’d see a bounce,” he told the Gary Neville Podcast (via Sky Sports).

“But we’ve seen the absolute opposite and it’s got a lot worse – and that’s surprising. There’s going to be a lot more pain towards the end of the season and it’s going to be damaging – because they’re obviously going to stick with Amorim. But the more you lose, the more difficult it is for the manager to convince the players of his idea.

“In the very early days he said, ‘I will not change my idea’ and you need the players to buy into that. If they keep losing and they keep getting criticised and the spotlight comes on them more and the fans are leaving unhappy, you know it creates a feeling and you can’t keep losing.

“You just can’t. It will depress the thoughts of the players to a point whereby they’ll start to lose faith in the idea and it’ll damage you.

Gary Neville fears the worst for Man United under Ruben Amorim

Therefore, Neville believes Amorim must somehow turn the tide in his favour and be quick about it if he wishes to avert a disastrous situation.

“He can’t change his approach now because he’s died in the ditch on it and rightly so. But he’s lost more games at Manchester United than he lost in the last 75 at Sporting Lisbon which is just absolutely alarming, so he will not be enjoying this.

“It can’t keep going on as it is and they somehow have to start playing better – because at this moment in time, it’s a very sorry situation when you watch United play.”