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Gary Neville has watched Manchester United since he was five years old. On Sunday afternoon at Craven Cottage, he said he had never seen anything like the 15 minutes that followed half-time. “That’s the worst 15 minutes I’ve ever seen,” the former captain told Sky Sports. “Absolutely pathetic. I’ve never seen such a lack of effort.”
United escaped with a 1-1 draw against a Fulham side still searching for their first win under Alvaro Arbeloa, and they needed a wicked deflection to do it. Lisandro Martinez turned the ball into his own net just past the hour after goalkeeper Senne Lammens spilled a tame effort into his path, and it took until the 89th minute for Matheus Cunha’s speculative strike from outside the area to take a nick off a defender and wrong-foot Bernd Leno. A third successive defeat was avoided. Very little else was.
Neville’s verdict: ‘I called them mannequins’
Neville’s criticism was not about quality. It was about movement. “I called them mannequins,” he said. “I have never seen a Manchester United team walk around as much as that. Not running is the only thing that I will call a disgrace.”
He was equally pointed about the manager’s public posture, arguing that Michael Carrick’s instinct to shield his squad has become part of the problem. “Michael has got to stop defending them,” Neville said. “Man Utd were a genuine disgrace. Nowhere near good enough without the ball.”
The specifics support the complaint. Fulham, a side who had taken a single point from their opening four matches, controlled the early second half, forced Lammens into the error that gave them the lead and were repeatedly first to loose ball in midfield. United’s goalkeeper had already looked uncertain before the decisive fumble; Martinez, one of the few players who has consistently run himself into the ground for the club, was the one left to bundle the ball over his own line.
Carrick refuses to yield
Carrick’s response was not a concession. Asked whether his team had been passive, he turned the question back on the room: “Did you think we were? I didn’t think we were. We controlled a lot of the first half and we played a lot of good football today.”
He pointed to the chances United created, to the woodwork, and to Leno’s contribution. “I thought we should’ve won the game. We created enough to win the game,” he said. “I think probably their goalkeeper, really. The saves that he made today — he has probably made three top saves.” On the wider slump, he was philosophical rather than alarmed: “It’s not been ideal. It was always going to come at some point, and it’s come at the start of the season. You learn about each other, they learn about me, I learn about the individual. That’s part of growing as a group.”
Arbeloa, meanwhile, provided the afternoon’s other headline, claiming after the late equaliser that Premier League referees “don’t like Manchester United to lose” — remarks that risk FA scrutiny and reflect the frustration of a manager now five matches into his tenure without a victory, with only Tottenham beneath Fulham on goal difference.
Five points, five games, and three weeks of silence
The numbers are where Carrick’s optimism meets resistance. United sit 12th with five points from five matches — one win, two draws, two defeats. It is their joint-worst start to a Premier League season, matching the 2014-15 campaign under Louis van Gaal. They have not won in three, having lost 1-0 to Manchester City and thrown away a two-goal lead to Brighton in the EFL Cup, a 3-2 defeat that ended a 50-year record of never losing at Old Trafford from two goals up.
What follows now is the extended international break created by FIFA’s decision to merge the September and October windows after a World Cup that ran to 19 July. United do not play again in the league until Tottenham visit on 10 October. Three weeks of unbroken scrutiny, with no fixture to change the subject, is an unusual form of punishment for a manager whose predecessors were routinely sacked in exactly these windows.
Historically, September is the rarest month for a Premier League dismissal — only two managers have gone during September breaks in the last decade. Carrick, who called it “ridiculous” to frame Fulham as make-or-break, will bank on that. The return schedule offers no mercy: Tottenham, Chelsea, then Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. Belief is cheap in September. By late October it will need evidence.
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**Sources:** [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13590228/gary-neville-michael-carrick-has-got-to-stop-defending-man-utd-players-after-lacklustre-draw-at-fulham) · [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49990867/gary-neville-explains-worst-15-minutes-manchester-united-claim) · [NBC Sports](https://www.nbcsports.com/soccer/news/michael-carricks-manchester-united-are-in-a-funk-what-did-manager-say-after-fulham-draw) · [The42](https://www.the42.ie/michael-carrick-manchester-united-4-7168065-Sep2026/) · [TNT Sports](https://www.tntsports.co.uk/football/premier-league/2026-2027/alvaro-arbeloa-referees-dont-like-manchester-united-lose-fulham-michael-carrick-not-passive_sto23339011/story.shtml) · [Yahoo Sports](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/gary-neville-slams-pathetic-man-181552660.html)
Article is 738 words. One note: sources differ on the own-goal minute (61′ vs 63′), so I wrote “just past the hour”; the deflection on Cunha’s equaliser is variously attributed to a defender or Leno, so I kept it non-specific.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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