Gary Neville has left Jamie Carragher stunned after refusing to state who he would start for Manchester United out of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wout Weghorst. Following Ronaldo’s departure at Old Trafford in November, the Red Devils brought in Weghorst on loan from Burnley, who has started 19 matches. But the 30-year-old has found the back of the net just twice, and is yet to open his account in the Premier League this season. Despite United faring better with the Netherlands international in the team, Weghorst has struggled to make an impact himself, as shown by his nightmare performance in Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at Newcastle. Neville chose to highlight United’s positive form on Monday Night Football with Weghorst leading the line, as he shared a graphic comparing him with Ronaldo.
But his Sky Sports colleague Carragher wasn’t having Neville’s argument that United are better off with Weghorst than Ronaldo. Pressing him on who he would have starting up top, Neville failed to give an immediate answer, as he said: “Personally I don’t think either of them at this moment in time are good enough to be playing centre-forward for United. I would have liked there to be a new signing who was basically a brilliant centre-forward.”
Carragher continued to press Neville for an answer, who responded by saying: “Well, it’s more important who Erik ten Hag picks, and he picked Weghorst.” Neville then stated, ‘I don’t know’, when pinned against a wall, leading Carragher to joke: “You don’t know between Ronaldo and Weghorst?” The ex-Red Devils right-back then remarked: “Ronaldo now is playing in Saudi Arabia, it wasn’t working at the end, he’s left, that was a provocative chart. But I think it’s right and the reason why Ten Hag is picking Ten Hag. I’ve put the chart up to show why Ten Hag continues to pick him.”
Asking him one final time to give his personal view, Neville stated: “I don’t know who I would pick, I think you would move it between game to game. Some games I would pick Weghorst, some games I would pick Ronaldo. If I was playing at home at Old Trafford I’d pick Cristiano Ronaldo, if I was playing away from home, I would probably pick Weghorst.” Since leaving the Theatre of Dreams, Ronaldo has banged in nine goals in ten games for Saudi side Al Nassr. He recently claimed that he is a ‘better man’ after departing, where he ripped into the hierarchy of United in his interview with Piers Morgan.