'Shocking, abysmal, terrible': Gary Neville says Manchester United 'can't play without Bruno Fernandes' in a scathing rebuke of Mason Greenwood, Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba
* Bruno Fernandes has an infectious quality to his play, according to Gary Neville
* But he cannot understand why Manchester United suffer so much without him
* Neville thinks other attackers must step up and not overly rely on Fernandes
* He blasted first half display against West Ham and thinks United lack identity
Gary Neville has launched a scathing attack on Manchester United's attacking players and says they 'can't play without' Bruno Fernandes.
Fernandes, who has won United's Player of the Month award five out of eight times since joining, has a massive impact on the team but Neville is unable to fathom why other top talents in the side cannot step up without him.
United trailed 1-0 at half-time against West Ham in a performance the pundit branded 'abysmal', before Fernandes came on at the break and helped his side fight back to win 3-1.
'It was an appalling first-half performance, I said shocking, abysmal, every adjective you could use, it was terrible, they were well off it', Neville said on his podcast.
'They were second to the ball, nothing in terms of possession, so scrappy, West Ham were far better but you knew if they didn't get the second [goal] they were going to have a problem.'
He added: 'They can't play without Bruno (Fernandes). I don't know what it is, he's a very good player but you'd think that Van de Beek and Pogba, McTominay in midfield with Greenwood, Cavani and Martial would be able to do so much better than that.
'The minute Bruno comes on - and Marcus Rashford as well who probably had a bigger impact on that game - but Bruno's impact on the team is huge. You can't compare Bruno to Harry Kane but you know Kane has an influence on his team that's bigger than just his performances, which are excellent.
Aside from Bruno Fernandes (left) and Marcus Rashford (right), Manchester United's attacking players have a lot to answer for, according to Gary Neville. The former United stalwart turned pundit hit out at the club's over-reliance on Fernandes. Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial started against West Ham but struggled in the first half
'Bruno is exactly the same with this Manchester United team and he's only been there a short amount of time. As soon as he came on, they seemed more arrogant, more connected, more cohesive. I don't know what it is when he doesn't play.'
Fernandes has scored seven goals and delivered four assists in 10 games for United already in the Premier League this term.
He was rested on Saturday with McTominay, Pogba and Van de Beek in midfield but the visitors looked toothless until the Portuguese came on.
Former club stalwart Neville also thinks that the level of talent at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's disposal is what gets the club out of jail sometimes rather than a definitive style of play or philosophy they are working towards.
'What Manchester United have is four or five match-winners, game-changers, that play in moments,' he explained.
Fernandes is the most dangerous player in United's line-up and his qualities are infectious. Mason Greenwood, Edinson Cavani and Co are capable of flashes of brilliance but remain inconsistent and struggle to 'knit together', says Neville. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men have endured a topsy turvy campaign so far this season. Fernandes has scored seven goals and delivered four assists in the Premier League this term
'My concern is for the longer-term because you need performances that knit together that look like an identity is building. I can't quite see what they are yet.'
And the fact that the players can show flashes of brilliance but not consistently deliver the same height of performance is what accounts for the mixed bag from United this season, according to Neville.
He continued: 'I can't get excited. Manchester United, if you'd said to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the fans at the start of the season, they would be a couple of points off Liverpool, playing in a group with Paris Saint-Germain and Leipzig and need to go to Leipzig for a draw, in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup hasn't started yet, you'd say it's a pretty good start to the season, it's where I'd expect them to be. How they have got there is the bizarre bit.
'You watch them in matches and you think "what's that?". They go to Turkey and they're awful, then beat Leipzig 5-0 at home (the Leipzig win came first). It's up and down, not even from game to game, it's half to half.
There have been disappointing lows, such as the defeat against Istanbul Basaksehir. The next two games could be pivotal in deciding which direction Solskjaer's team go in
'For 20 minutes they were brilliant but for large portions, it was below par. They have to be consistent but I'm not sure they can because there are players that play individually, they don't knit together.
'With United, I'm still thinking "what kind of team are they?". All I can describe them as at the moment is a team that wins games in moments of individual brilliance.'
The victory at West Ham moved United on to 19 points, five off the leaders Tottenham and Liverpool but with a game in hand.
It was also the ninth Premier League away win in succession and next up for Solskjaer's men is that all important clash with Leipzig.
Tuesday night's game will have a huge impact on the season and is followed up by another massive clash, the Manchester derby on Saturday.
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