Forced changes weaken defence - Neville

Gary Neville has claimed Manchester United's defensive frailties can be explained away by their constant changes of personnel.

After last season's record-breaking feats, when they kept 14 successive Premier League clean sheets, United have been strangely vulnerable this term.

Tuesday's six-goal Champions League thriller with CSKA Moscow was the second time they have conceded three goals in a game, while their seven shut-outs in all competitions this term represents less than a 50% success rate in keeping the opposition out.

Neville accepts there is an issue to address. But he is convinced once Sir Alex Ferguson is able to select a settled back-four again, normal service will be resumed.

"We are interchanging the defence too regularly at the moment because of injuries and it has caused us a problem," he said.

"We had to change our keeper for the opening two months of the season, then Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic have been injured. Before that it was Wes Brown. It means more changes than the manager would like."

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i'm sorry Nev but i just can't accept that as an excuse considering last season when we went on our 14 game run without conceding we had more injuries in defence than we do now! Vidic was the only defender during that entire period who played every game, Evra was suspended for 4 weeks, O'Shea and Rafael were interchanging at RB as Neville and Brown were both injured and Rio was injured for half of the games!
The players playing now are the same players who were so good last season but this year however we seem to have fallen apart, confidence is a big factor and a couple of solid performances in defence will sort it out... the trouble is i just can't see where these performances are going to come from and with Chelsea coming up its not going to get any easier but this could be just the game to boost our confidence!
From wookiee11, on Fri 6 Nov 8:40AM
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were bringing RUTHLESS back this sunday
bang!bang!bang!
3-0
united back on top
EASY AS!
end of!
From shay, on Fri 6 Nov 2:02AM
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Gary Neville is a @#$% through and through... i used to have respect for him as a 100% England player to be counted on and a leader when England lacked them. since his game has gone down hill and he knows he is finished he has become like a taunting child which is not good for the reputation of Man Utd as they have been the driving force for the past 20 years....when Liverpool had 20 years of dominance they were not a taunting side or on the edge of the rules every week like UTD have been......... please try to adopt some class utd!!!
From Laura, on Fri 6 Nov 12:26AM
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Neville...Are u kidding..lol
All teams have injuries. Check out the injury list of team that clobbered you 2-0 at Anfield.
Your fans say you have a deep squad, so it shouldn't be a problem.
From Gidy, on Thu 5 Nov 7:59PM
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THIS IS NOT THE MAN UTD PAGE
From fayj92, on Thu 5 Nov 6:53PM
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it is a pity that only united have had to make defensive changes whilst every other team has been able to field regular unchanged defensive teams.get real neville when things go wrong at united first fergy then you jump in with ridiculous statements..
From alan, on Thu 5 Nov 4:39PM
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great team no need an excuse
From sanji, on Thu 5 Nov 4:34PM
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no, no, the great team no need an excuse... look at rubin kazan against barcelona... the champion need no an excuse...
From sanji, on Thu 5 Nov 4:30PM
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