Gary Neville slams 'embarrassing' Manchester United tactic against Tottenham: 'Absolute madness' | OneFootball

Red Devils legend says structure of team in Spurs loss was ‘awful’ and ‘breaks all rules in football’

Gary Neville launched a scathing attack on Manchester United’s tactical set-up against Tottenham under Ruben Amorim, describing their approach as “awful”, “absolute madness” and “embarrassing” that “breaks all rules in football”.

United’s latest loss came against the backdrop of a new injury crisis that saw a total of 12 first-team players ruled out of the trip to Spurs, with Amorim forced to name a nine-man bench featuring eight teenagers who had never previously made a single senior appearance for the club.

The Portuguese deployed captain Bruno Fernandes in a deeper midfield position against Tottenham alongside the out-of-favour Casemiro, recalled and starting for the first time since December with Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte, Toby Collyer and Mason Mount all injured and Christian Eriksen missing through illness.

It was a system that simply did not work against Spurs, with United legend Neville incredulous during commentary as he slammed their approach with a withering assessment on Sky Sports.

“The distance between the two central midfield players, see where Casemiro is and where Bruno Fernandes is, that cannot be right,” he said. "It breaks all rules in football. Absolute madness."

Neville added: "United may win today and may score goals but I have to say that the structure of the team is awful. The gaps in that midfield between Fernandes and Casemiro.

"That’s a tactic, they’ve been asked to do that. Bruno’s been asked to come out to this side and it isn’t right.

“Bruno Fernandes is playing right wing, the two of them in midfield are split, it’s embarrassing. You wouldn’t see this in Under-9s or Under-10s football.”