Ruben Amorim hasn’t been in charge of Manchester United for even a year, but his tumultuous tenure has seen a wild array of responses from Gary Neville.
Probably the most prominent former Manchester United player working in the media today, Neville has frequently given his thoughts on Amorim’s management and tactical approach – which have yielded the worst win percentage of the post-war era.
Despite the poor results, Neville has shown plenty of patience with Amorim and identified reasons to believe. But there’s been some pretty severe criticism, too.
We’ve put together a timeline of Neville’s wild emotional ride following Amorim’s Manchester United since he was first appointed 10 months ago.
Clearsighted (November 2024)
Neville was clear how big a job lay waiting for Amorim after the Portuguese coach was announced as Erik ten Hag’s successor.
“You know Manchester United’s a front-foot club, you know it’s the club of attack, attack, attack and it’s nothing like that at this moment,” he said on Sky Sports.
“It’s really disappointing and the new manager can’t come in quickly enough.
“Job number one has got to be to stop this rot of players coming to Manchester United, who were fancied because other clubs wanted them as well and who have not been able to achieve the levels of potential they demonstrated before they signed.
“So, with the players he inherits – which he’s going to be stuck with for the next eight months – he has to try and get the maximum out of them and that’s going to be a big job.”
Blunt (November 2024)
Doing his usual analysis of Amorim’s first match in charge, an underwhelming 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town, he didn’t mince his words on the scale of improvement necessary.
“He obviously knew how big a job this was, but he’ll have recognised it yesterday,” Neville said.
“It will get better in the next few weeks, because like you say, that back five that he picked, and I’m not talking about the actual wing-backs here, I’m talking about the three at the back and the two in midfield, that will become more energetic and better, the sort of personnel, when the personnel changes occur. But there’s a long way to go.
“Roy [Keane] yesterday called Manchester United an average team, and that’s being kind.”
Realistic (November 2024)
Neville refused to get too carried away after a decent showing in a 4-0 victory over Everton.
He couldn’t resist pointing out that Champions League qualification was still within reach – but stopped short of backing them to go and do it. Clearly burnt one too many times before.
“Obviously it was a good win. Coming back in midweek and winning, Ruben Amorim will be happy,” said the former United right-back on his Sky Sports podcast.
“They’re a long way off, no doubt about that, but they’ve gone up into the top half of the table. They’re only four or five points off the top four, which is mad really.
“But I don’t think they’re quite at that level yet to give anybody confidence that they can get there. The teams that are above them, particularly in the top six are well ahead of them in terms of performance levels.”
Dubious (December 2024)
There were some early alarm bells around Amorim’s constant changes following a defeat to Nottingham Forest.
“When you keep changing players, when you keep changing your back three, when you take five players off, you’re basically saying to all of them effectively – because they’ve been left out of the starting XI – you don’t trust them,” Neville reacted, speaking on Sky Sports.
“And Ten Hag kept doing that a few weeks ago where he kept changing the back players, changing the midfield. All of a sudden, you’ve got a completely different system, a completely different set of players on the pitch at the end of the game and you can never get stability or consistency.
“Just leave the players on. They actually weren’t playing that bad in the first half. Obviously they were undermined by the set pieces, in terms of the corners, but the football generally wasn’t that bad.”
Encouraged (December 2024)
Neville didn’t get too carried away with the performance behind United’s 2-1 victory in Amorim’s first Manchester derby – but he sounded positively giddy at how he’d laid down the law to Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho.
“But what is really clear is that Amorim mentioned engaging with team-mates, he’s mentioned standards,” Neville said on Sky Sports.
“He’s giving us clues, in fact, emphatic clues, about the last few days that they’re moping and not doing their bit around the training ground.
“It’s standards in training and he’s thought ‘no, I’m not having it, I’m not accepting it.’ Good on him.
“For far too long we’ve seen players mope around that pitch and still continue to get a game or on the bench.”
Accepting (December 2024)
“I think it will be City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal at this moment in time,” Neville gave his mid-season predictions on The Overlap.
“It’s the first time I haven’t said United will be in the top four, I think, in about 15 years!”
Some self-awareness there, to be fair. And he got the top four bang on, although he still backed Arsenal to overhaul Liverpool in the title race.
He stuck to his guns, giving his 2025 predictions on Sky Sports and leaving United out of the conversation for the top six.
Gratified (January 2025)
Neville put in a few caveats of the wider picture, but he was thrilled at how Amorim’s Red Devils performed in a 2-2 draw away to arch-rivals, and eventual champions, Liverpool.
“That was a performance against the best team in the league at the moment, that was from minute one to minute 90, even to go behind in the game and come back, that’s a real performance.
“Amorim has picked a better team, that’s number one, but he also said ‘I’ve not had any time on the training pitch at all with the players’. This last week was the first time he’s had four training sessions with them. He’s now got five next week or six next week, so he did say he just wanted that time.
“Now, I’m not saying everything’s going to be right, but this has been the worst performance of any Man Utd team in a century in terms of league points and stuff like that, so let’s not get carried away, but it’s something to hang your hat on. It really is something to hang your hat on.”
Scathing (February 2025)
It didn’t take long for Neville to swing back the other way. A month after the decent performance at Anfield, he sounded horrified at Amorim’s tactics in a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham.
“The distance between the two centre midfielders for United is all wrong. Look where Fernandes is, look where Casemiro is,” he observed, from the commentary box, for James Maddison’s match-winner.
“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 is really angry. He is going mad at his bench. He is shouting at people,
“I’m not sure what he is angry about. The biggest problem l can see is how this team are set up.”
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Bored (April 2025)
It sounded a bit like part of Neville’s soul had died after enduring a goalless Manchester derby, one of the most instantly forgettable Premier League matches of recent times.
“They’re micromanaged within an inch of their lives – so robotic, that game – and quite symptomatic, actually, of a lot of games that we’re watching nowadays,” he reacted on Sky Sports.
“It’s not good enough. I feel disappointed.
“It’s a Manchester derby and it should have more blood, thunder, and risk, and courage involved in playing the game and trying to win the game than that.”
Supportive (May 2025)
Neville described Amorim as one of the “most engaging” managers he’d come across, and in spite of the poor results in his first season deemed him worthy of time and financial backing.
“He needs a proper pre-season with the team to embed this system and this style of play,” he told The Athletic ahead of the Champions League final.
“We’ll know a lot more in October, November, December when I’m sure they’ll be winning more matches than they are now.
“Ruben has been very good at identifying the players he wants out of the club; that’s really clear to everybody. The club’s job now is to get them out and get replacements in that he likes and wants in his team.”
Faithful (May 2025)
After the unmitigated disaster of Manchester United’s Europa League final defeat, Neville told Amorim to stop doing himself down and offering an easy way out.
A bit like being four points deep and consoling your best mate after they’ve been dumped.
“It gets to a point now whereby he offered up his job on Wednesday night and said if I have to resign, I will. You don’t need to do that, Ruben. You don’t need to offer up your job,” said Neville.
“It’s great that you have that spirit and that honesty about you and that authenticity, but now it’s time for you to stop offering yourself up, stop in some ways being as honest with us, and just go and fix the problems in the transfer window and fix the problems for the start of the season. That’s what’s needed now.”
Optimistic (August 2025)
Full circle on the Neville boom and bust cycle, Neville saw enough in United’s opening weekend performance – a defeat at home to Arsenal – to back them to finish ahead fourth.
“I’ve done this now for eight years, and I’ve always had Man United in the top four every year!” he began.
“It was a late change but with a bit of science… When I watched United against Arsenal, I thought the performance was very good.
“I think they’ll get a goalkeeper and, with those players up front, with no Champions League or Europa League, I think Man Utd will surprise a few people. If you perform like that, you’ll win a lot of football matches.
“And I’m not sure Chelsea are going to find it as easy with the Club World Cup, European games, all the demands of that.”
Numb (September 2025)
That didn’t take long, did it?
After identifying some major tactical misgivings over Amorim’s dogmatic refusal to change his system, Neville admitted that his former club’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City left him feeling “nothing”.
“I think there will be some pressure applied to the manager and his rigidity of sticking with the system,” Neville responded on Sky Sports.
“City have beaten them well and comfortably. United had some good moments in the game – the first 15 minutes and the first five minutes of the second half. City, in big moments, have had better players. Foden, Doku, Haaland have stood out.
“There have been times when I have seen United lose this type of match when I feel angry and frustrated. I just feel nothing, which is even worse.”
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