Neville claims Amorim ‘not off hook’ as Man Utd owners ‘won’t be kidded’ by ‘hopeless’ stars

 Man Utd legend Gary Neville insists the Red Devils hierarchy will be “relieved” at the win over Sunderland but Ruben Amorim is not “off the hook”.

Amorim’s side continued their perfectly inconsistent form again on Saturday by beating the Black Cats 2-0 at Old Trafford to move into the top half of the table.

Man Utd have won three, lost three and drawn one match this season for an underwhelming ten points with Amorim needing to qualify for Europe this season.

Their embarrassing League Cup exit to Grimsby Town earlier in the campaign has also got to be taken into account when judging Amorim this term.

There have been reports insisting that Amorim will be judged on a 38-game “yardstick” with Amorim earning just 37 points from 34 matches since taking over from Erik ten Hag towards the beginning of last season.

And, despite their win over Sunderland on Saturday, Neville doubts anyone will “be kidded” by that win with an away match against Liverpool at Anfield coming up after the international break.

Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast: “It was a must-win game and I don’t think it lets him off the hook.

“There’s too many defeats, the record’s too poor so I don’t think anybody will be celebrating too much tonight at Manchester United but I think they’ll be relieved that there is a victory which allows a little bit of peace going into the international break.

“Manchester United win the odd game but that’s nowhere near enough. I don’t think anybody would be kidded on by the fact that Manchester United beat Sunderland at home. The fact that it was even in doubt before the game is probably the problem in itself.”

Man Utd boss Amorim commented before the match against Sunderland that he was sure criticism from the media has been impacting their performances.

Amorim said: “My players, I guarantee you, they are listening to all the opinions and they are putting that inside because we are not winning games. They have to believe in me. So my biggest problem is that my players believe in you guys when you say the problem of our team is the system.”

Responding to those comments, Neville added: “If pundits are getting into your head then you shouldn’t be playing for the club.

“Do people not remember Alan Hanson criticising us when we broke in as young kids saying that you can’t win anything with kids. That was the greatest centre-back of all time at that moment talking about us as if we were, you know, inferior and nowhere near good enough.

“Did they not think that we got criticised during our football careers. I’m sorry you’re playing for Manchester United – it comes with the territory, you’ve got to step up.

“They’ve been hopeless in the system. If it’s not the system, then the players are a problem, the manager is a problem, the whole thing’s a problem if you’re losing football matches to the level that they’ve been doing.

“I never blamed anybody else when we lost football matches and I played in a dressing room that when you lost football matches you came in and you said sorry. There was accountability. Why would you blame other people. I’ve not got any time for excuse mentality shortcuts blaming other people – it’s the worst thing that you can do in life.

“I think they just need to concentrate on doing their jobs and doing it well and winning football matches. The only thing that’s going to shut anybody up is winning football matches and they’ve not won anywhere near enough.”