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Gary Neville admits he looks “a bit more optimistic” for Man Utd to head to the holiday schedule, but still hopes they won’t hit a title challenge.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer celebrated two years in the Old Trafford hot seat in style on Sunday when Man Utd beat Leeds 6-2, with the old foes meeting in a top-notch encounter for the first time since February 2004.
Scott McTominay set the tone by becoming the first player in Premier League history to score two goals in the first three minutes of a game, with Bruno Fernandes and Victor Lindelof also scoring in the first half.
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Liam Cooper cut one for Leeds just before half-time, but Daniel James and a Fernandes penalty put the hosts ahead before Stuart Dallas scored an impressive consolation.
Neville was impressed with what he saw from Man Utd, but his “intuition” is that they will still struggle to win the Premier League this season.
“His form is really good,” Neville said in Gary Neville’s podcast from Sky Sports. “They are scoring goals and coming back in games, they played well [against Leeds]. Great match against Leicester on Boxing Day.
“But there is something that is not right. But when you look at where they are in the league and they can be two points behind Liverpool … if you had said at the beginning of the season that they would be in a position to go two points behind Liverpool with a game in hand. Christmas, you would have broken anyone’s hand.
“Everybody thought that City and Liverpool were way ahead and for Manchester United it was about trying to bridge the gap. But no one thought they would ever be in a position to be this close, but they will finish second in the league if they can win their game at hand.
“And it does not seem that Manchester United has played like that. There has been talk of the coach’s job, obviously leaving Europe was a big problem, the performances have sometimes been horrible, the performances of the first half in many games have been terrible.
“You just look at them and think there is no emerging team that you think can challenge for the title.
“My instinct is still to say that. I don’t think Manchester United is going to win the league.
“But what I’m surprised about, it’s strange that they’re considering that probably a couple of weeks ago you thought this could be difficult, that it could be a challenging period at Christmas. But he looks a bit more optimistic. “
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