Gary Neville says the pressure on Erik ten Hag will become “unbearable” if Manchester United lose to Chelsea next Sunday.
United were beaten 2-1 at West Ham after conceding a controversial late penalty but had missed a host of chances in the first half.
The result saw the Hammers move above United on goals scored, leaving Ten Hag’s side in 14th place in the Premier League after nine matches.
It’s their second-worst start to a Premier League season in terms of points total and far from the start the club’s owners would have envisaged after eventually backing Ten Hag after the FA Cup win last season and spending over £200m in the transfer window.
“I always think that anybody that’s half-decent, that can play, will beat this United team,” said the Sky Sports pundit on The Gary Neville Podcast. “I just think anybody that’s half-decent, that puts their shoulders up and has the quality, which Chelsea have got in parts of the pitch, and Man Utd are in danger.
“I don’t think there can be another defeat next Sunday at Old Trafford. I genuinely don’t.
“I think it’s getting to that point now where there is a real worry. I’m worried because the results, the lack of goals, the lack of performances, it’s stacking up week after week after week, and there will be some sort of reasons given [on Sunday] – I’m not going to say excuses – but reasons given around missing chances. But they keep missing chances. These are the players that have been recruited over the last couple of seasons mainly.
“It’s a sobering time because the feeling was after winning the FA Cup final and investing well, having a more smooth transfer window, that now it’s looking like here we are again at that moment where it’s going badly wrong.
“It’s getting to that point where it’ll become unbearable, the pressure in this next week or two around Erik ten Hag.
“Just purely the position in the league, they are 14th. Manchester United… I mean, it’s Manchester United. He can’t be 14th in the league. He can be after one or two games, maybe, but not after nine, not after 10.”
On the controversial penalty award, which saw referee David Coote sent to the pitchside monitor by VAR Michael Oliver before eventually overruling his real-time decision to not award a spot-kick for Matthijs De Ligt’s collision with Danny Ings, Neville said: “Every team gets a bad decision but that one wasn’t right for a couple of reasons.
“De Ligt comes out, it’s not like a loose ball with Danny Ings, it’s bobbling in the box and they both sort of go for it and it’s like a knee from De Ligt that just makes contact with Ings, and it’s nothing really.
“The referee doesn’t give a penalty on the pitch, David Coote, and then we’re watching it and he gets called over to the screen by Michael Oliver on VAR.
“But the interesting thing for me was when David Coote went over, he must have watched it eight times, and I’m screaming at the television. I think he doesn’t think this is a penalty, he’s not having this, but he turns around and he overturns his original decision and it wasn’t right.
“I think the pressure maybe of being sent over to the screen by Michael Oliver, a dominant referee… No one likes to upset their superiors. You think of it when you’re a young player in the dressing room and you have a senior player in the dressing room, or if you’re young in the office and someone senior in the office makes a call you don’t really want to tell them that they’re wrong.
“I think it was a bit of that because I’m not sure David Coote was anywhere near thinking that that was a penalty. And it was a big shock, and in the end Jarrod Bowen steps up, takes the penalty, it’s emphatic, and United lose the game.”
What did Ten Hag say about Coote and Oliver?
Erik ten Hag: “I don’t criticise any personnel but I criticise the process. Off-field was Michael Oliver [VAR], on-field you have to make a decision in the final moment. He did I think three minutes to decide to make this call. You have to show big personality to re-call this decision an experienced VAR has made.”