Gary Neville on Manchester's dominance and Salford's cup exit
In the latest Super 6
Class of ’92 diary, Gary Neville discusses the early-season Manchester
dominance, Liverpool's latest setback and Salford's FA Cup
disappointment.
True tests await
I did say at the start of the season
that the title would end up in Manchester and the evidence so far
supports that, but it's far too early for either club to get carried
away.
You would have said, from the fixtures, United should have
been at the top at this stage, but I think the table will start to even
out once we see them against tougher sides.
There
are still big questions about both United and City. Can United break
down sides? Can Manchester City handle it against more physical sides?
If
you look at United, you saw them make mistakes at Stoke and there were
chances for Everton, but ultimately the weaknesses they have shown at
the back are covered by a goalkeeper in David de Gea who is absolutely
world-class.
Man United scored three late goals to beat Everton 4-0
Home improvements
Jose
Mourinho has always been a good manager at home and he is happy to sit
in and let teams expose themselves, and United's record at Old Trafford
is now no defeats in 12 months since City won there.
To me they are looking a lot better than before in terms of breaking sides down and killing off games.
There's
a really exciting battle going on between Marcus Rashford and Anthony
Martial for that left-side striker role and every time we see the team
sheet the fans are asking why the other isn't starting.
The
interesting thing is that one seems to be profiting from the other's
work, with Martial scoring again after coming on for Rashford.
City the new Arsenal?
I
think City were always going to be more impressive in their attacking
style and it feels similar to the battles we had with Arsenal when they
were playing fluid football and we, while also being an attacking side,
were more powerful.
Sergio Aguero's hat-trick helped Man City win 6-0 at Watford
The
Arsenal of yesteryear were similar to this Manchester City side in
terms of playing really exciting football, but the challenge is doing
that in tougher games.
I think what we want to see is them tested
in big games and that was developing against Liverpool before the Sadio
Mane red card, so, for now, they've only demonstrated they can dominate
the lower teams.
Liverpool's limitations
What we have already seen this season is Liverpool demonstrating what they can do, but also their absolute weaknesses.
If
you think about conceding unnecessary goals and struggling to break
down teams at home, they don't seem to have moved forward in that sense.
They
can beat any side on their day a team opens up against them, as we saw
with Arsenal, but if you can be compact and not give them space then you
can stop them.
FA CUP FAILURE
I was at
the FA Cup second round qualifying 2-1 defeat to York and I think from
the first five minutes on we weren't really at it.
We'd played
fantastically well for the last three league games and it was well short
of that level and we didn't deserve to go through.
We've given a
very clear direction that we want to prioritise the league but the FA
Cup is the one cup we were very keen to do well in. It's been a great
competition for Salford and ourselves as players, but unfortunately it's
not to be this year.
Salford had opened the scoring against York
The
only sort of potential positive is that it gives up more clarity for
the league, but losing to one of our promotion rivals also means both
Darlington and York have won at Moor Lane.
Our academy team is in
FA Youth Cup action on Thursday night and it is a fantastic competition
for young players in terms of preparing you for competitive football.
I
remember coming through and getting the experience of playing at places
like Maine Road, which gave us that exposure of playing on the big
stage.
It's going to be difficult because we've only got an
Under-17s teams and it's an Under-18s competition, but the lads did
fantastic against Mossley in the last round and it will be huge for them
play on Moor Lane.
Super 6 predictions:
There's
another £250,000 up for grabs on Tuesday's night's Super 6 for the
Carabao Cup. Here's what Gary Neville is predicting...
Aston Villa 1-1 Middlesbrough
Bournemouth 2-0 Brighton
Burnley 2-1 Leeds
Crystal Palace 1-2 Huddersfield
Leicester City 2-1 Liverpool
West Ham 2-0 Bolton
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