Gary Neville rips into 'absolutely pathetic' Manchester United for 'worst 15 minutes ever'

A furious Gary Neville tore into “absolutely pathetic” Manchester United after their wretched start to the second half and dreadful own goal against Fulham.

The Red Devils followed up a disappointing first-half performance in a crucial Premier League clash at Craven Cottage on Sunday with a mostly woeful display after the interval, in which Neville accused them of “walking for 15 minutes” and delivering a shocking “lack of effort”.

The former long-time United right-back even went as far as to say that it was the worst quarter of an hour he had even seen from a United team in the 46 years he had been watching the club.

To compound their misery, United fell behind to Fulham in comical fashion, with the ball bouncing in off Lisandro Martinez from outside the six-yard box after goalkeeper Senne Lammens had initially saved from Calvin Bassey.

It was an awful sequence of play from the visitors as Kobbie Mainoo’s poor pass intended for Matheus Cunha was seized upon by Bassey, whose challenge on the Brazilian was deemed fair following a VAR check.

“It’s a real mess. He’s not strong enough, Cunha,” Neville said during his co-commentary duties on Sky Sports.

“I have to say, I’ve watched Manchester United since the age of five and that’s the worst 15 minutes I’ve ever seen them play.

Comical: Lisandro Martinez scored an own goal for Manchester United against Fulham

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“Absolutely pathetic. They’ve walked for 15 minutes. You get what you deserve in a football match.

“Maybe that will wake them up, maybe that will wake Fulham up as well.”

Neville added: “I’ve never seen a lack of effort for 15, 20 minutes like I’ve just seen there. What must he [Michael Carrick] be thinking, he can’t believe what he’s watched in that last 15, 20 minutes.”

Neville had said before the goal: “It's a few minutes of the blue mannequins playing against the white mannequins and then it switches around, bizarre football match.

“They won't go anywhere with a lack of urgency like this. I don't know if it's fear, lack of complacency, they're just not working hard.”

He later added: “If I was Michael Carrick I'd be worried about the message the players are sending him, coming out of the half-time talk with this lack of urgency is remarkable.”

With the pressure mounting further on under-fire boss Carrick, United’s blushes were eventually spared in west London by Cunha, who equalised with just one minute of normal time to go after his shot took a heavy deflection off David Affengruber to deceive Bernd Leno.