Gary Neville gives damning assessment of Erik ten Hag’s Man Utd selection for Aston Villa trip

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has made some major selections with his starting XI for a crucial Premier League battle away to Aston Villa, and Gary Neville has provided his judgment.

Gary Neville compared Erik ten Hag’s lineup selection for Manchester United’s trip to Aston Villa to that of a manager nearing the end of his term bringing in young players.

Following Thursday’s 3-3 draw with Porto, Ten Hag has dropped Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez to the bench. Harry Maguire will join Jonny Evans at Villa Park, while United’s boss has left summer acquisitions Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee on the bench.

United’s manager is under severe pressure heading into Sunday’s game, with co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe reluctant to fully support the Dutchman. Ratcliffe emphasized that Ten Hag remains a fine coach, but that his management team, which includes CEO Omar Berrada and athletic director Dan Ashworth, would make the final decision on Ten Hag’s future.

Ten Hag’s squad travels to Villa Park in 14th place in the table, but a win may propel them into the top half if other results go their way. A defeat, however, might spark additional calls to fire the manager, and Neville’s comments about the starting lineup were telling.”I actually at one point thought Gary and Phil Neville might be full-backs!” laughed Neville, who spoke to Sky Sports from the NBC studio as he prepared to cover the match for the American network. “I must say, if you told me five or six weeks ago that you’d end up with Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire… at centre-back six or seven games in, I’d have thought there had to be four injuries to the others.

“The fact that De Ligt and Martinez have been dumped to the bench, you can’t really argue with the decision from a footballing perspective.”Because the goals United surrendered in Porto were horrible from De Ligt and Martinez’s perspective.

United’s return of nine points from seven games last season was their joint-worst start in Premier League history. Anything other than a win versus Villa, who are coming off a Champions League victory against Bayern Munich, will create a new unpleasant record.After United co-owner Ratcliffe maintained trust in Ten Hag, the manager received a £200 million boost during the summer transfer window. However, just one of his five senior acquisitions starts at Villa Park, with former Ajax star De Ligt dropped after being blasted by fans following the Porto tie.

“Just optically, looking at it from the point of view of the plan, the plan was this season for Erik ten Hag to establish his style of play and shift the team up the pitch,” Neville claimed. “Make them more forceful, more in line with what he intended to implement. United will now be camped on the edge of their box with Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans. This was not the plan.

“So for me, it’s a little like tossing out the good along with the bad. It feels a little like when a manager is suffering at the end of his term, when they basically put the young guys in and say, ‘I’m going to choose the players that I like and the ones that I can trust.'”