Gary Neville went on an incredible rant in the closing stages of Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Wolves – to the point where he admitted he couldn’t watch the game anymore.
In a game that saw few chances from either side in the first half, Ibrahima Konate gave Liverpool the lead shortly before half-time with a header.
An error from Konate led to Wolves’ equaliser through Rayan Ait Nouri, before Mohamed Salah restored Liverpool’s lead from the penalty spot after Nelson Semedo brought down Diogo Jota.
As the clock ticked down, Wolves fans became incredibly restless with the side’s risk-free style of play, with players regularly threatening to start attacks before then passing it back to goalkeeper Sam Johnstone. And even Neville, who was on commentary for Sky Sports, declared that he’d had enough.
He fumed: “This passing it back to the goalkeeper, it drives me crazy. Absolutely crazy.“Honestly, this is exactly what I’ve been talking about. You need a goal. Do they know?“It’s so frustrating. I can’t watch this. You can’t kid football fans – they know exactly what’s going on here.
You’ve got to have another idea to try and do something different. I’m not talking about wellying it long or long balls.“We always blame it on Pep [teams playing similarly to City], but his players can do it.
We’re now watching teams at the lower end of the table playing six passes between the centre-back and the goalkeeper, needing a goal with four minutes to go, and I can’t accept that.“It’s not just a criticism of Wolves, there’s plenty of teams doing it.
This has got to stop.”“We’ve got the cameras on Gary O’Neil but the players themselves must realise they’ve got to put some urgency into the game.“The job really is to get the ball with quality into your striker’s feet as quickly as possible.
That is the aim of football, and from that you can go and play.“A lot of teams have forgotten that is the essence of football. Get the ball into the feet of the most talented player as far up the pitch as you can, with accuracy.
That’s not what we’ve seen here or many of the games this season.”When Neville was told that Wolves substitute Hwang Hee-chan had one touch of the ball in the final third in 21 minutes, he replied: “Twenty minutes and he’s had one touch. A replacement centre forward.
He’s had one touch. The centre-backs in that time have had about 400. The keeper’s probably had about 30.
