Interested to hear what Gary Neville had to say at the weekend.
I must admit that I far prefer him as a pundit than a player.
Gary Neville as a Manchester United player was pretty annoying, Gary Neville as a pundit on Man U and the other clubs is probably the best pundit around.
I was watching the Fulham v Manchester United match on Sky Sports this Sunday gone and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Neither could Gary Neville: “I have never seen a Man Utd team walk out of possession as much as that…I called them mannequins. I’ve never seen a Manchester United team walk around as much as that. No alertness, no aliveness. No ‘on your toes’. You should always be on your toes. Always shifting up two or three yards. They were just walking when Fulham were in possession. “
Gary Neville going on to say: “Very rarely do I say a team doesn’t work hard or is lacking in effort. That’s the ultimate criticism you can give a group of players…a genuine disgrace. Nowhere near good enough without the ball.”
Fair play to Gary Neville.
I couldn’t believe how the Man U players went on either, during the game I kept thinking how the Man U fans felt inside Craven Cottage. Spending all that time and money, yet the players literally walking around the pitch and not putting Fulham players under any pressure whatsoever.
Manchester United fluked a point when a wicked late deflection gifted them an undeserved point but that didn’t change the fact of how little effort their players had put into this match.
I also couldn’t help but compare this to what I had seen inside St James’ Park on Saturday.
Newcastle United up against a previously unbeaten Hull City, a Hull City who had easily outplayed, outfought and outran Manchester United in their first Premier League game of the season. Hull defeating Man U 2-0 in that match, then going on to beat Coventry as well as drawing against Villa and Chelsea (who Hull deserved to beat at Stamford Bridge).
I had an interesting discussion with another Newcastle United fan post-match on Saturday, he thought Matias Fernandez-Pardo had been terrible against Hull City.
I couldn’t believe it. A perfect example of how two Newcastle United fans can watch the same game and come to completely different conclusions.
Matias Fernandez-Pardo had a thankless job against Hull as an isolated lone striker and he was a massive reason why we won. His workrate was off the scale and he kept the three central defenders and goalkeeper on edge for the first hour or more until he was understandably knackered. He ran so far and so hard, sprinting most of the time.
Obviously the young inexperienced 21-year-old is still adapting to a new club, country and far tougher league. We will see a far better Newcastle United striker in the future, but in the meantime, this workrate alone is astonishing and something that is a huge contribution to NUFC. He was the first line of defence and did it superbly, compare the problems he gave the Hull City defence with how the Man U players just walked around and let Fulham walk the ball out and build attacks from the back.
After the discussion I’d had with my NUFC supporting mate, I loved it when the club put this up on their official social media on Monday. United revealing that Matias Fernandez-Pardo had done more sprints this weekend than any other Premier League player. I’m not sure whether the Man U team did more than a handful of sprints between them…
Pressing machine. 🏎️👏
Matias Fernandez-Pardo had the most sprints (28) in the Premier League this weekend. pic.twitter.com/W5FYTHeSm6
— Newcastle United (@NUFC) September 22, 2026
If you have played football at any level, you will know for sure that the very worst thing is having somebody like Matias Fernandez-Pardo doing that, sprinting to close you down repeatedly and never giving you a second’s peace.
MFP led the way and the rest of the Newcastle United team followed, Yoane Wissa in particular was also excellent with the pressure he put on the Hull keeper and defence.