Gary Neville calls out Man United player as ‘stupid’ for choice in late Everton draw
Gary Neville was pretty critical of a Manchester United player for making a “stupid” mistake just before Everton scored a late equalizer on Sunday afternoon. The match ended in a 2-2 draw at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles scoring a fantastic last-minute goal on his Everton debut.
Bryan Mbeumo put Everton ahead first, then Tyrique George leveled the game at 1-1. Benjamin Sesko came off the bench to score for United, but for the third game in a row, they ended up conceding two goals, with Maitland-Niles grabbing a point for Everton.
While the goal itself was impressive, Neville wasn’t happy with what happened before it. He pointed out a mistake by Patrick Dorgu, who came on as a substitute in the second half. Neville noticed Dorgu chasing the ball out of position with an isolated press, which left space on the left side for Everton to attack.
On the Gary Neville podcast on Sky Sports’ YouTube channel, the former United captain said: “Some might just say ‘Those were two great goals,’ but that last one was really bad. Dorgu suddenly sprints out to press alone. Santos doesn’t move behind him and stays put, so the ball gets played past Dorgu easily. It looks like a big miscommunication.”
Neville also mentioned how changes at right-back made things worse. With Dalot coming off and Yoro coming on, the defense got narrower and deeper, making it easier for Everton to attack. “Yoro playing right-back like that shows the problem,” Neville said. “Forget the finish—it was a special strike—but so much went wrong before the goal. You have to stay organized and not let players run off and make silly decisions.”
He added that Santos not helping Dorgu and Yoro’s deep position left United vulnerable, and they could have stopped the attack earlier. “I was shouting when it happened. You know the ball’s going to be pumped in when a team is desperate. You have to be organized, and United weren’t in those last few minutes.”
Dorgu was one of five subs used by Michael Carrick, with both full-backs, Shaw and Dalot, being replaced. Neville worries about these defensive changes and thinks Carrick shouldn’t be switching things up so much during games.
“You can’t keep changing your back four,” he said. “Maybe if you have strong cover like Hincapie coming on for Calafiori, it’s okay. But United’s back four—Shaw, Dalot, Maguire, and Lisandro Martinez—doesn’t have much backup. You can’t just swap them around. Maybe Carrick had a reason, like injuries or saving players for an upcoming game, but it’s not ideal. That’s something to worry about.”