Gary Neville praised Sunderland’s direct style and spirit after their 3-0 win over West Ham
Gary Neville has hailed Sunderland’s 3-0 win over West Ham United, saying the Black Cats demonstrated the power, spirit and direct play that can make them a force in the Premier League this season.
The Sky Sports pundit admitted he has concerns for promoted clubs but singled out Sunderland’s display at the Stadium of Light as hugely encouraging. “It’s a lot about, and I’m worried about it actually, about the top three from the Championship coming up and then going straight back down. I am worried about that situation. But actually when I saw Sunderland yesterday, there was a lot of things that I liked.”
Neville highlighted Sunderland’s physicality, aggression and aerial dominance. “You know, the physicality in the air with the headed goals. I think the fact that they had players that looked like they were really sort of powerful and strong. Could make runs in behind, they were really direct.”
He contrasted their approach with previously promoted clubs who, he believes, take unnecessary risks by overplaying at the back against elite opposition. “And I think we’ve seen some teams come up from the Championship and they’ve tried to play these thousand passes from the back. And I lose the will to live. I’m sorry.
“You know, you’re taking on Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Villa, Arsenal, Liverpool. All these great sides and you’re passing out from the back and you’ve got Championship centre-halves. And I know you’ve done it in the Championship maybe and it looks great.”
Neville argued that some clubs play this way to promote coaches or increase player values – but warned survival has to come first. “I know there’s reasons why teams do that now. One is because the coach wants to play the way in which will get that coach promoted. I think managers and owners want to play a progressive style of football.
“I think they also want to produce players that can be bought by the top clubs. So that they create a player trading model that means that they can sell those players into clubs like City, Liverpool, Chelsea at £30million, £40million. And it keeps them propped up. But whatever happened to doing what you need to do to win football matches and points to be able to stay in the league?”
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Neville insisted Sunderland showed the kind of energy, risk-taking and unpredictability that can unsettle Premier League opponents. “What I’ve enjoyed about this first weekend is that I don’t want to see formulaic football. I don’t want to see everybody playing the same way. I want to see direct imperfect football. I do.
“Imperfection for me is beautiful in football. When players look directly run at players and there’s that element of… We’ve seen sometimes over the last few years wide players get the ball and pass it back and recycle it far too often.
“Now that can work. And sometimes if you’ve got three or four players in front of you, you think, OK, let’s switch it, let’s get it out the other side and see whether we can push it into a different area of the pitch to get a sort of advantage. But I want to see wide players with thrill and risk and players running forward and committing and over committing in the box.”
He compared Sunderland’s risk-taking to Liverpool’s bold counter-attacking approach. “That’s why I wasn’t overly critical of Liverpool the other night when they had that counter-attack goal against them. They had seven players in the box. They could have gone three, went up and won the game in that moment. Obviously, they risked losing the game in doing it. But that’s what I want to see.”
Neville added that Sunderland’s display had the qualities to keep them in the top flight. “So for me, Sunderland, yes, they demonstrated a lot of the qualities that I think can keep you in this league. Because if you’re playing for Liverpool, City and Arsenal, the three best teams in the league, and Sunderland come and try and play football against you and pass it around the pitch, you’re really happy.”
Neville added: “Because I’ve been there. I’m really happy if they try and take us on at football, because I know we’re going to win that game. But if they try and basically be direct against us, beat us up, be aggressive, run in behind us, be a threat.”
The former Manchester United defender said he was reminded of his toughest days in the Premier League – not against the giants, but against aggressive, physical teams. “Some of the toughest games I had in Premier League football were not in the biggest matches. It was at grounds like Stoke, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace, West Brom, and there’s many others. Southampton at the Dell, when I got beat there, 5-2 one year, or 6-3 one year, 3-1 the next.
“Because you had players that basically had quality, but they also were really a massive physical threat. So set pieces were a real pressure in certain grounds. You played Wimbledon away, you’re thinking, please stick your helmets on, type stuff.”
Neville concluded that Sunderland’s performance was a reminder of what makes the Premier League so compelling. “So I want to see this league not be 20 teams all trying to play beautiful football. And I thought Sunderland epitomised that yesterday in terms of spirit, energy, direct play, crosses and great headers from goals.I was really happy with it.”
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