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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Josh O'Brien

Gary Neville baffled by Man Utd "mystery" in poor showing vs Norwich

Gary Neville has bemoaned Manchester United's performance away at Norwich even though Ralf Rangnick's men ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty.

United were particularly lacklustre during the first-half of their trip to Carrow Road, with a number of key players guilty of misplacing passes and lacking in energy.

Norwich gave as good as they got, causing United a number of problems throughout the second half either side of Ronaldo's winner from 12 yards.

Neville listed a number of reasons as to why he was unhappy with the performance United put on, but was also left with more questions than answers - one aspect of the game puzzling the former England international and Old Trafford favourite especially.

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Gary Neville was left puzzled by aspects of Manchester United's performance (Twitter)

"The big mystery of today for me was why Manchester United were so lacking in energy," Neville explained.

"I thought they would be a lot better than that, particularly after the fact that the players that were out on that pitch today have all had a free whole week to prepare for that match.

"So, a little bit of a mystery in terms of today's game but we will know a little bit more on Tuesday [when United travel to Brentford]."

Neville was unimpressed by United's overall display, blasting: "It wasn't a good performance.

"On the ball they were so sloppy it's untrue. They gave it away so many times it was unbelievable.

"Any other team in the league there playing against Manchester United today would have probably at least get the point or maybe wins the game."

Though United were in action mid-week on Champions League duty against Swiss outfit BSC Young Boys, with progression to the latter stages of the competition already secured, Rangnick chose to deploy a team littered with young fringe players.

As a result, the first-team regulars who regained their places back in the starting line-up were significantly well-rested.

Yet they performed like anything but, with Norwich first to every ball and forcing their United counterparts into making a series of errors.

Rangnick appeared to echo Neville's sentiments with his post-match remarks, claiming he was "not at all happy" with his aspects of his side's display after his third game at the helm.

"At half-time, I told the boys we needed to increase the speed and intensity of the game," he told BBC 's Match of the Day.

"The second half was a little bit better but at the end we were lucky to have a clean sheet.

Manchester United Interim boss Ralf Rangnick was not best pleased with his side's showing against Norwich ((Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images))

"The second half, I was not at all happy with the amount of corners that we gave away, but we got the three points.

"We have conceded the highest amount of goals in the top 10. Now we have two clean sheets which is good but we still need to improve on that away, especially against physical teams or teams that attack high like Norwich did.

"It’s also a question of body language and physicality, and this was one of the major issues that we could have done better."

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