Manchester United legend Gary Neville has admitted that while Wout Weghorst is doing a job for Erik ten Hag at the moment, the Dutch striker is not good enough to be a United player and should ultimately not be there.
Neville compared Cristiano Ronaldo and Weghorst’s impact in a United shirt before concluding that the Dutchman is a far more positive difference-maker for the Red Devils in comparison to the Portugal captain.
Neville however pointed out that Weghorst is in no way fit to even lace Ronaldo’s boots.
This comes after Weghorst’s poor performance for United during Sunday’s 0-2 defeat at St James’ Park at the hands of Newcastle United.
During the 62 minutes he was on the pitch against the Magpies, Weghorst only completed four passes. To put this into context, the striker lost the ball three times. He also failed to win any of his duels either on the ground or aerially.
Neville remarked on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football via The Daily Mail, “Since Sunday that seems to have been a moment, he has played basically every moment since coming in. I called him a placeholder because United didn’t invest in a striker United would want.”
Neville also called on Erik ten Hag to stop with the Weghorst experimentation.
“This experiment has to stop, Weghorst has to come out, it can no longer go on, the reason he continues to play and why Ronaldo is no longer at the club, you see his 19 starts against Ronaldo’s 19 starts.”
Neville’s analysis that the team won more significantly more games, lost less matches and other players found the back of the net on more occasions when Weghorst is in the team compared to Ronaldo.
“It is the strangeness of football is having a player who isn’t good enough to be a Manchester United forward but has brought more profit to the team. I believe he (Ronaldo) is the greatest player of all time.”
Neville added, “I think ultimately the reason he [Ten Hag] left Ronaldo out was because of the stats, I think it is clear Weghorst isn’t fit to lace Ronaldo’s boots but those are stark stats playing in same period with same team-mates, he was really poor on Sunday, he shouldn’t be there, but the reason he is there is because of those stats.”
Jamie Carragher tried to put Neville on the spot regarding who he would start between Weghorst and Ronaldo.
The ex-United man cleverly dodged the question and replied that he would not have either as ideally, none of them are what United need at the moment.
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