First time I'd seen him doing the Sky 'analysis bit'. Very good and a big step up on Gray and Keys. Neville made the odd mistake, but he'll grow into the job, but he had loads of great insights that come (partly) with being recently playing at the top level under the greatest manager in British football history. He doesn't seem to have any blatant bias, and worked well with the other guy. Loved what he said about Luiz, who is a quality player, but does play in an undisciplined fashion.
Agree Ghoddle, saw him on the first weekend of the season and remember saying on here how impressive he was compared to Andy Gray. Even when Man Utd play he is very fair and impartial. It's so surprising, because as a player I absolutely hated him, as a pundit he is alright
Yep WY, he really comes across as someone trying to do an honest and useful job, and not just mouthing clichés. I suspect he's one of the more intelligent footballers around. The stuff he did on full backs and about being 'brave' to win, gave me a real insight into the game and how the top teams play it.
Very complimentary, along the lines of: Modric could play for Barcelona, should be looking up the league rather than down it, Kaboul is becoming a rock etc.
He said loads of complimentary things, which to be fair is to be expected ATM. However, he pointed out the key importance of Modric in the second half, and made him MOTM. Not a choice I would have made, but after his comments I could see his rationale. His insights into our two goals were very good, picking up on Bale's contribution to the first, and the hopelessness of Villa's double right back ploy on the second. Also highlighting the supreme arrogance and artistry of Luka's pass to Bale. 'You know Luka's going to bypass you with his passing ability' speaking re Hutton, 'so just get back and help your mate (Cuellar),' or some such words. However pre-match after eulogising Bale, he did point out the way Man U used to shackle him was by getting very tight on him, and they showed various clips of how Rafael did it. So he said that's a prt of his game Bale needs to work on. Well, us Spurs fans already know Bale has worked on that side, and he showed it again with the trick he pulled to make space for the second goal. The presenter reminded Gary of his 'pre-match point' and Neville did have a bit of a problem, I thought, in taking the implied criticism of him on board. However, Bale's clever 'lollipop' was still given due credence by Neville. Incidentally Neville called Villa's tactics better than Harry pre-match. He correctly predicted Hutton at wide right mid, whereas Harry said he thought Villa were going 'three at the back' with Hutton as a wing back. Of course, no-one predicted that half the Villa team would be playing full back, as delightfully satirised in this Villa article. http://www.astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=7510616
Good points HBIC about pundits getting settled and then not bothering I've answered that in this thread, as I want to keep this thread going Apologies to all for my double post.
After his being in my list of "players who I detest," (then again so were Ade and Gallas!) I find myself agreeing with the OP. His analysis is mostly bang on and he delivers it in a business like, unstarry way. As for his lack of bias, I guess his praise of Liverpool at the weekend puts any doubts to bed. A good start and improving week by week.
WY - he's a contemporary of these players so we're getting a really good insight about those he knows first hand. Of course he's got some rough edges yet, but I hope he doesn't get 'too smooth'.
Man Utd's tactic to deal with Bale was to kick him all over the place and then sub their right-back after an hour, when he was knackered and on the verge of being sent off. Filth.
For a second I thought my comment about the sexism row being a smokescreen for Sky to sack Andy Gray after he sued them for phone hacking had been deleted, before remembering it was in another thread...
Well, Harry may have been lying, but as McLeish had already confirmed he was going to do what Neville had predicted, I think Harry simply called it wrong. It was no big deal, because we were going to play the same XI anyway, and whether we needed to make minor changes after the kick off I'm not sure.
