Gary Neville believes only Amad was played in the correct position by Ruben Amorim as Manchester United suffered another defeat, this time against Newcastle.

Despite a new regime promising better things for the Red Devils, with Erik ten Hag in the rear view mirror and Amorim installed, the change around has not been as immediate as many fans would have liked. A derby day victory away to fellow out-of-sorts rivals Manchester City has been followed by four consecutive losses in all competitions, with the new Portuguese boss only registering four wins from his first 11 games – two of those in the Premier League.

Now, as United were beaten once again, this time suffering a 2-0 defeat at home to the Magpies, club icon Neville believes the manager still has a lot of work to do to right the ship.

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Amorim’s men found themselves behind inside five minutes at Old Trafford on Monday evening, with Alexandar Isak’s opener doubled by a Joelinton header after 19 minutes. A dire opening 30 minutes forced Amorim into a surprise change as Kobbie Mainoo replaced Joshua Zirkzee just after the half-hour mark.

All in all it had Neville seething as he complained that only one of United's starters began in their correct position. “When I saw that team [to play Newcastle], I thought there’s no chance that team can play football well together,” Neville told Sky Sports. “It’s impossible really.

“Because you rely upon Amad, who's the only person really in the position that he belongs - that you’d think that can actually create anything or do anything. He also struggled in the first half because he had nothing around him.”

Neville continued, believing that the selection of players that Amorim put out simply didn’t complement each other – with a lack of overall pace, which was a clear issue.

“It was the team selection I thought was wrong,” he added. “I did. I just thought it was wrong. He can’t play that back three with that midfield two, they’ve got no legs. There was a stat before the game: Manchester United, every time they’ve played [Noussair] Mazraoui and [Diogo] Dalot as wing-backs have not scored a goal. They’ve not scored a goal in open play.

“It’s not the fault of Casemiro or [Christian] Eriksen either. At one point in the first half, I said that the last person Casemiro would have wanted to see next to him was Eriksen and the last person Eriksen would have wanted to see next to him was Casemiro.

“That’s how it is when you play two slow centre-backs together [too]. Steve Bruce always wanted Gary Pallister. Nemanja Vidic always wanted Rio Ferdinand and vice versa. Because, you know one of them is a bulldog in the air, and you want that sort of yin and yang. They just don’t fit with each other Casemiro and Eriksen. It was as bad as it gets.”

Things don’t get any easier for Amorim at the weekend, as they face a trip to Anfield on Sunday evening before heading south to the Emirates to face Arsenal in the FA Cup third round.