Jamie Carragher was quick to remind Gary Neville of his pre-season prediction about Manchester United after they were humbled by Tottenham.
The Red Devils endured another difficult afternoon, as goals from Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke on top of a red card to captain Bruno Fernandes saw them humiliated with a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford.
The result piles the pressure on manager Erik ten Hag, whose side now sit 12th in the Premier League table, having lost three of their opening five games.
United legend and current pundit Neville was left furious by his former club’s performance, later tearing into them on Sky Sports following the match’s conclusion.
And his colleague Carragher showed him no sympathy, as he seized the opportunity to rub salt in the wound by reminding his fellow presenter of his optimistic predictions before the season started.
Back in August, Neville and Carragher delivered their annual Premier League predictions ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.
The Liverpool legend backed Manchester City to defend their title, with Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool to make up the top four.
Meanwhile, Neville opted for Arsenal as the eventual winners, with Man City, United and Chelsea taking the remaining Champions League places.
The former Red Devils captain confidently predicted his old club to finish third, and labelled Ten Hag a manager to watch.
Speaking at the time, he said: “A lot of people thought Ten Hag was gone but he is still there, renewed hope, squad stronger, feeling better but now he needs to deliver.”
He added: “I do think they’ll get into the top four if they stay clear of injuries.”
These comments were clearly still fresh in Carragher’s mind following United’s three-goal drubbing to Spurs, who retweeted a graphic highlighting their pre-season predictions shortly afterwards.
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On Monday morning, he again reminded Neville of his bold claim, as he commented on a video shared on X of his fellow pundit criticising his team’s display.
Carragher wrote underneath the initial post: “You put them third at the start of the season!!”
However, the eight-time Premier League winner at Old Trafford will now surely have changed his tune, as he slammed the Red Devils’ display against Spurs.
Speaking after the match, he questioned the players’ commitment to the cause, asking: “Are the players not buying into what Erik ten Hag is telling them to do? Or do they not believe in it?
“One thing that I can say is that their application towards doing it was abysmal.”
The 49-year-old then pointed to midfielder Christian Eriksen‘s post-match comments following United’s 1-1 draw against FC Twente in the Europa League in their previous match.
Neville continued: “And the most worrying thing was on Wednesday night, Eriksen’s comments around the fact that he felt that FC Twente wanted it more, that they were more hungry.
“That is a player that is in the middle of that dressing room who I would suggest is very well respected by the rest of his colleagues and by the manager.
“He’s an experienced player, he’s played hundreds and hundreds of games at the highest level, and he’s questioning the motivation and the attitude of his players.”
The former full-back later added: “We’ve seen it here today, they really didn’t put the effort in in the first half.”
