Hands up, baby hands up ! (Gary Neville)

Member Name: Chandler

Product:	Gary Neville
Date:	11/10/01 (649 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Solid, Good going forward, Improving

Disadvantages: No idea of offsides

Gary Neville. One of the easy targets for criticism in recent times from opposing and even England fans. Firstly he plays for the ultra-hated Man United (my team) and of course he is prone to the odd error. This means that he and his brother Phil take a lot of stick, but in the last year Gary has matured into a much better player and is now starting to shut the critics up.

Neville first came into the United team back in 1995 when they realised David may was as effective at right back as Ghandi would be. Neville started to display some solid tackling and provided a useful overlap on the right behind Andrei Kanchelskis. Since then he has gained experience as a player, winning Premiership titles, FA Cups and the Champions League with United.

Gary had become one of the better right backs in Europe, but fate was to deal him a hard blow. His 1999-2000 season saw him go from bad to worse in his form, despite finally scoring the odd goal, his mistakes (particularly in Rio in the World Championship) were to see him branded as a poor player and that stuck for a while.

Of course as is, what affects one brother affects the other and as Gary?s form declined so to did that of Phil. At Euro 2000 Phil became a figure for hatred himself when his poor tackle cost England a penalty and ultimately a place in the knockout stages.

So the Nevilles became a target for the boo boys, both at club and international level. They have received stick both fair and unfair, but recently Gary has started to look like the player we all know he can be.

His defending in terms of heading and tackling is right spot on again, and he is developing into more of a leader figure, however there is one major flaw in his game that he needs to sort out ASAP.

Offside, if there is even a question of offside then Gary will stop dead, raise his arm and yell. It has cost United dearly over the last few years, I don?t mind the appeal but he needs to keep running bac
k, he also suffers in a team playing a deliberate offside trap. As we saw recently Greece scored against England as Gary had held back, but in another game he ran out but the other defenders stayed, leaving his man to score.

If he sorts this out he will be a solid defender but I will get very upset with him if he keeps it up.

Summary: