Paul Scholes admits there is no logic to his Europa League final prediction while Gary Neville agrees “club mentality” could be key despite his “sickly feeling”.
Manchester United face Tottenham in the Europa League final next week in a battle between the 16th and 17th best teams in the Premier League.
Ahead of the clash, on The Overlap Fan Debate, Neville revealed his “sickly feeling about the game”.
“I’ve genuinely got a sickly feeling about this game next Wednesday,” Neville said on The Overlap Fan Debate.
“The biggest reason is when I look at every single player in the Tottenham team, when you look at (Dejan) Kulusevski, Son (Heung-min), Brennan Johnson, (Dominic) Solanke, if (James) Maddison was there, (Yves) Bissouma and (Pape Matar) Sarr, (Cristian) Romero and (Micky) Van de Ven, (Pedro) Porro and (Destiny) Udogie, when you look at those players, like-for-like with United’s, only Bruno (Fernandes) would get into the first 11 of Spurs.
“I would select every single Tottenham player. The goalkeeper is a 50-50 split because I don’t like (Guglielmo) Vicario and I’m not a fan of (Andre) Onana.
“Honestly, Udogie, Porro, Van de Ven, Romero, Bissouma, Sarr, Johnson, Maddison, Solanke, Kulusevski, Son, I would choose every single player of Tottenham’s over Manchester United’s next Wednesday. That’s my worry.”
He continued: “The one thing that keeps me alive – the likes of a Casemiro, a Bruno, they’ve got something in them that will step up for a one-off game, that means I think that we’ll win.
“But if the players play as they should do, pound-for-pound, Tottenham should win that game.”
Scholes reckons United’s recent history of finding a way to get over the line will prove decisive despite his former side losing to Spurs three times already this season, claiming the Red Devils are similar to Real Madrid in that regard.
He said: “I have no logical reason why United should win it, other than recent experience and history.
“Look at Real Madrid in the last five years. They’ve not been a great team at time but that history just takes them to it.
“Realistically they should win it, they’ve beaten us the last three games. I think you’ll probably be the best team on the night, play really well but we’ll win.
“We seem to find 10 or 15 minute spells where we win games. I think that’s what’ll happen.”
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Neville agreed, adding: “It’s not about history really, it’s about a club mentality because history sounds like it’s sort of nostalgic, it’s not.
“It’s a mentality of a fanbase and club that think we’re going there and not coming out of this city until we’ve won. We know that can change, that could look stupid next Wednesday.
“You should with talent on the pitch, you’ve got better forwards, better centre halves, you’ve got better midfield players, other than Bruno, you should win that game.
“You’ve beaten us the last three times because you’re a better team than us. The big surprise you should look at most is what Newcastle did against Liverpool because that was a big shock.
“I was amazed about how Newcastle did they beat Liverpool really well on the day.”