Gary Neville has warned Manchester United that they will get beat by Brentford on Tuesday evening if they repeat the same level of performance that saw them scrape past Norwich City on Saturday evening at Carrow Road.
In what proved to be a drab affair and largely lifeless United performance, Cristiano Ronaldo netted his seventh Premier League goal of the season with 15 minutes left on the clock, smashing home a penalty, to seal a 1-0 win.
The Portuguese ace, who has now netted 13 goals this term, won the penalty after being dragged to the turf by Canaries right-back Max Aarons and stepped up to send Tim Krul the wrong way and net an important winner, securing a second win in as many Premier League games under Ralf Rangnick.
Although United have won each of Rangnick's two Premier League games in charge so far without conceding a goal, Neville has warned United that they will have to do better at the Brentford Community Stadium in midweek.
Neville told Sky Sports : "That performance, I think, against any other team in the league would have caused them real problems. They go to Brentford on Tuesday night and they are going to have to play better than that or they will get beat.
"But I do think they will be [better]. I will be really interested to see Ralf Rangnick's interview to see whether they have had a really hard week of training and that [the performance] was just a sort as a result of that and whether he took a little bit of a chance with today's game, knowing they could probably get through it, or that he actually told them before the game that he wanted to them to sit off Norwich a bit.
"We were told before the first game, and all week, that Manchester United would be high energy and high press. That didn't exist today and I am interested to understand why.
"But the most important thing for United was the three points and a clean sheet. I think he will take that all day long; two Premier League wins, two clean sheets and seeing plenty of players play in Europe in midweek.
"I think he will see it as a good week, but they will have to improve a lot from that type of performance to get anything in the next games."
Having looked so assured and convincing against Crystal Palace with the exact same starting line-up last weekend, Neville has admitted that he struggled to pinpoint what was the reason for such a drop in standards.
"Honestly, it was a really strange one to understand what happened out there today, on the ball and off the ball," Neville continued. "Those players have had a free week to prepare so I was expecting a ferociously-frantic start to the game with loads of high pressing and quick play.
"It was lethargic from minute one. On the ball, they were so sloppy it was untrue. They gave it away so many times it was unbelievable.
"I think any other team in the league playing against Manchester United today would have at least got a point or even won the game."
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