‘I’ve changed my mind’ – Gary Neville on how Liverpool made him re-evaluate Man United’s problems

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has revealed that he has changed his mind on the matter at his former club after seeing how well Liverpool have bounced back following Jurgen Klopp’s departure.

Man United haven’t been the same since Sir Alex Ferguson ended his legendary career at the end of the 2012/13 season. They have gone through a long list of different managers and expensive contract players, all of whom have struggled.

It’s difficult to compare the two situations, but Liverpool bounced back immediately after Klopp’s departure and Arne Slott won the Premier League title last season.

Neville said it led him to question whether such a departure from United had always happened, or whether better decisions could have prevented it.

Gary Neville talks about the legendary Manchester United and Liverpool manager’s departure

Ferguson was at Old Trafford for 26 years, completely transforming the club, but was at Anfield for just under nine years, so the comparisons to Klopp are not entirely fair.

Still, there is no doubt that the German tactician transformed Liverpool significantly during this period, helping them win their first league title in 30 years and their sixth Champions League title.

Neville spoke on YouTube’s Overlap about what United should have done when Ferguson retired.

“There was always a drop-off, right?” Roy Keane replied.

But Neville replied: “Have you, Roy? To be fair, I said that, but when you look at Slot’s performance after Klopp, you see it wasn’t quite the same dynasty… So my mind has changed a bit.”

“There was a downturn[at Arsenal]after[Arsene]Wenger. I expected a downturn after Klopp, but that didn’t happen. So what could have been done there with this big problem at the club?”

What went wrong at Manchester United?

Fans will no doubt point to a variety of factors, but there’s no doubt it’s a combination of factors that have made it difficult for the Red Devils to bounce back like Liverpool.

It’s probably fair to say that Ferguson, along with other key players such as Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Patrice Evra, didn’t have a very good team, with older players like Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand clearly past their peak by that point.

However, the performances of the new players that eventually arrived were very poor, with players like Angel Di Maria and later Paul Pogba far from performing as well as they could have.

That is probably due to a series of managerial failures, with David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho not being a good fit for United.

Slott joined a more settled club in Liverpool and didn’t have to do much to change things from when he first arrived, a quality he inherited from Klopp.