Ruud van Nistelrooy is now in interim charge of Manchester United (Getty)
Gary Neville has urged Ruud van Nistelrooy to consider playing a three-man defence with Manchester United following Erik ten Hag’s exit.
Ten Hag was sacked on Monday morning less than 24 hours after United’s 2-1 defeat away to West Ham in the Premier League.
Van Nistelrooy, who scored 150 goals for United during his playing career and returned to Old Trafford in the summer as part of the first-team coaching staff, has been named as the team’s interim manager.
Sunday’s defeat to West Ham has left United 14th in the Premier League table with just three wins from nine games so far. United have also failed to register a victory in the Europa League this season with draws against FC Twente, Porto and Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce.
Van Nistelrooy will now take charge of United for their Carabao Cup tie at home to Leicester City on Wednesday night before his side host Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday.
And Neville believes United could benefit from lining up with a three-man defence in order to provide more solidity to the team.
Asked if Van Nistelrooy can immediately instill a new identity in the team after Ten Hag’s exit, Neville told Sky Sports: ‘I mean it’ll be almost impossible wouldn’t it, for him to do that in the next few days.
Gary Neville says it will be ‘impossible’ for Manchester United to make instant changes under Ruud van Nistelrooy (Reuters)
‘What’s he going to be able to do? He can set the team up differently, I mean that’s something that could happen, he could make the make-up of the team slightly different.
‘But he’s been on the bench with Erik ten Hag so I’d be amazed if there something drastic happened in the next few days in the games that he’s got to manage.
‘I think that ultimately there needs to be quite a lot of work done with those players because at this moment in time they are desperately struggling.
‘Erik ten Hag has not been able to get a consistent level of performance out of them and a lot of those players now are his players, he was backed in the summer and that ultimately I think is a big factor in this.
‘Ruud van Nistelrooy will do his very best, I have thought for a number of months that looking at the players United have they may be better suited to going three at the back, just purely because of a lack of a centre-back pairing and the full-backs, to be fair, look better going forward than they do defensively. So maybe that could happen, maybe that might give them a little bit more comfort because it would give them an extra body at the back but also get the players into a system whereby they’ve got more support.
‘That’s something I’ve thought for a few months, but whether Ruud does that and whether that’s the right …read more
Source:: Metro
