Phil Neville’s appearance on Sky Sports’ The Debate show on Thursday night wasn’t well received by those football fans who find him dull - of which there are many.Indeed, when Neville tweeted a photo of himself with host Jeff Stelling and fellow guest Danny Murphy, reminding his followers to tune in to the show at 10pm, Lee Dixon felt compelled to reply with, “nope”.Much of last night’s show centres around Saturday’s highly-anticipated affair between Liverpool and Manchester United at Anfield.It’s among the biggest games of the season, pitter two bitter rivals against each other.Last year’s matchup resulted in a 0-0 draw but Man United’s side isn’t as defensive this time around.And with Liverpool’s defence as leaky as ever, goals are to be expected.Jurgen Klopp’s side has conceded 12 goals in the Premier League so far. That’s 10 times more than Man United and more than Swansea and Bournemouth, both of whom sit in the bottom three.Neville believes the Red Devils can exploit Liverpool’s main weakness.
Neville: Liverpool haven't improved in four years
Speaking on The Debate, Neville said Klopp’s spending on defenders has been “Championship spending”, and believes the German should have sold Philippe Coutinho in the summer to finance a defensive rebuild.
“The front six look good, but defensively, and the goalkeeper, he has not addressed that situation,” Neville said.
“I think he really missed a massive thing in the summer by not selling Coutinho.
“They have not got vast amounts of money, they would have been able to invest in the squad, maybe two defenders. Put two defenders of quality in there and you are talking about a title-winning team.
“They are at the same level they were at two years ago, four years ago, and they can just not get over that point of challenging for the league.
“Look at the players they have bought - Robertson, £8m. Klavan, £4m. Matip, free transfer. That's almost Championship spending on an area of the field where Liverpool are very weak.
“You spend that amount of money, you get that level of performance.”
As expected, Liverpool fans didn’t take too well to Neville ripping their recent business to shreds.
Liverpool fans react to Neville's comments
But it’s easy to see where he’s coming from. And there are Liverpool supporters who, despite his enormous talent, wished to see Coutinho sold and the money reinvested in the squad.
Currently seventh in the table, Liverpool’s stubbornness could well end up hurting them.