Gary Neville’s outrageous Liverpool claim comes back to haunt him after Man Utd defeat

Former Manchester United defender and current Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has been made to eat his words about Liverpool after old comments resurfaced.

Liverpool swaggered to a comfortable home 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest thanks to goals from Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah, while United were thoroughly outclassed by Pep Guardiola’s side in the Manchester derby as they lost out by the same scoreline.

The two teams did plenty of business over the summer, especially in midfield and the two seemingly battled it out for the signature of Mason Mount, who opted to join Erik Ten Hag’s side amid strong Liverpool interest. They also acquired Sofyan Amrabat to add to their engine room.

It left United fans feeling confident of a strong season but they sit eighth with five wins and five losses while Jurgen Klopp’s side fourth, three points from the top of the table.

Neville had made the bold claim right before the start of the season on his YouTube series ‘The Overlap’ that Klopp would want to swap his midfield for United’s after their summer business - and it’s a comment that has aged awfully 10 games into the new season.

He claimed: “If you look at the actual players; you’ve got [Bruno] Fernandes, [Mason] Mount, Casemiro, [Christian] Eriksen - I think Jurgen Klopp would swap his midfield now for United’s.”

Of course, Liverpool went onto secure the signings of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo and Dominik Szoboszlai - as well as allowing five midfielders to depart - as they refreshed their engine room. United’s midfield has been inconsistent, incoherent and often unavailable due to injuries and it has come under fire time and time again this season and Neville’s comments look worse by the game.

All four of their signings have settled in brilliantly, with two becoming guaranteed starters while Gravenberch and Endo are improving every game. Szoboszlai has been tremendous thus far and has already become a key player alongside their spine or Alisson, Virgil van Dijk and Salah - he’s been that good.

In contrast, the United midfield was ripped to shreds by City’s over the weekend and Neville himself was highly critical of Ten Hag and his plans, calling the decision to have Scott McTominay and Eriksen in midfield yesterday a ‘brave’ call.