Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has issued a warning to manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer over his side's level of performances ahead of this weekend's clash with Liverpool at Old Trafford.
United's Premier League title charge suffered its latest blow on Saturday afternoon, going down 4-2 to Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, meaning they are now without a win in their last three league games.
United were sloppy defensively and were made to pay for their mistakes by a clinical Leicester side, who scored twice after Marcus Rashford had made it 2-2 with just eight minutes left to play of normal time.
Following Wednesday evening's UEFA Champions League tussle with Atalanta, United will resume their Premier League campaign against a Liverpool side in red-hot form and yet to lose this season.
The clash with Liverpool marks the beginning of a stern test for Solskjaer's players, with the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea to come in the next few weeks.
For Neville, the upcoming fixtures could be troublesome for United, but he hopes the players will rise to the occasions in the games that lie ahead.
"Oh, we know what’s coming," Neville told Sky Sports. "Having struggled against half decent teams, they’re now going to play against some of the best teams in the world. Next Sunday, they’re going to play Liverpool and then they have to play Man City the week after.
"They’re going to play Tottenham and then Chelsea and these are proper teams. Of course, the players could rise for those games, but they didn’t make a good start [vs Leicester]."
Although United won four of their first five league games prior to this current slump, the performances were still being questioned. They scraped past Southampton and West Ham United, plus were far from their very best when beating Newcastle United 4-1.
"The performances have been so shoddy all season in terms of team performances," continued Neville. "There’s been some good results and some great individual goals, but the overall performances and the unit in and out of possession have been shoddy.
"It’s scrappy and scruffy to watch. When you play a team with a clear organisation and a methodology, you’re going to get pulled apart and that’s what happened here.
"They were pulled apart by Villa, pulled apart by Everton and pulled apart by Villarreal.
"I think the performances over the season haven’t been good enough even when they’ve been winning. Against Newcastle [when Man Utd won 4-1], everyone got carried away but they weren’t very good that day."
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