Yaya Toure’s attacking gifts aren’t enough to make up for his defensive deficiencies anymore, said Gary Neville in a scathing attack on the Ivorian following Manchester City’s 4-2 derby loss to United.
Manuel Pellegrini’s City were poor for all but the opening 15 minutes against Louis van Gaal’s side at Old Trafford and Neville, speaking on Sky Sports, is certain big changes are afoot for the club.
‘It’s a crossroads for them now,’ Neville said as City drifted four points behind their third-placed cross-city rivals who are now one point off Arsenal in second.
‘There is definitely going to be change at Manchester City, whether it’s players, the manager, people above. Certainly some players.
‘There are some weeds in the garden and you’ve got to get them out of the changing room pretty quick. You cannot carry passengers.’ Neville singled out Toure as an example of the ‘weeds’ at the Etihad in a scathing attack.
‘He does that much for the team in an attacking sense you live with maybe the consequences of that defensively,’ he said.
‘But when the balance tips to a point when going forward isn’t quite as effective as it once was, you’ve got to do something different because the defensive side is poor.
‘If I was a player in that dressing room looking at him in central midfield thinking you’re not chasing back, you’re not running around, you’re not sprinting for the ball. There might be a physical problem that he cannot do it, let alone if he doesn’t want to do it. I think there’s definitely going to be some changes.’
Graeme Souness, also on Sky Sports, even suggested the 31-year-old’s work when his side doesn’t have the ball is a factor in their disappointing Champions League results in recent years.
Neville accused Toure of a ‘complete dereliction of (his) duty’ when marking Marouane Fellaini and blamed his lack of tracking back for United’s third goal from Juan Mata.
‘He cannot play in a two in midfield against an opposition of any quality,’ said Neville on Sky Sports.
‘Against maybe one of the lesser teams at home you can put him in there and play with two up top, but against any team of quality you’ve got to shift him out of that position in the centre of midfield.
‘There are too many examples, too much evidence when watching him where he cannot do his job, simple as that. As a central midfield player in the big matches he just cannot do it.’
Graeme Souness said Toure’s become ‘a bit of a liability’ for City in the past two years, despite being instrumental to their Premier League title win last season.
Fellaini has completely outshone him today. He is outnumbered and I’m sure he’s frustrated but again he’s just going through the motions.’
Picking out on particular aerial duel, which Toure lost, Sinclair said: ‘This is nothing to do with ability, that’s to do with desire and wanting to take one for the team.’
Sinclair also felt Toure was at fault for Chris Smalling’s goal, United’s fourth.
‘He’s got to organise this better,’ he said. ‘If you’re captain of the team you’ve got to keep that high line, dictate and tell the lads to get in positions and win the ball. They were queuing up on the far stick.’
Phil Neville said: ‘The minute they concede a goal and their backs are against the wall, they crumble. They lost their shape, they lost their discipline, they were all over the place.
‘There was nobody in there today that said “right, we’re going to get two banks of four, hard to beat and actually try to grind out a result”.’
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