Gary Neville responds to Erik ten Hag comments calling out Jamie Carragher for Man Utd criticism

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has drawn criticism from Gary Neville for his response to Jamie Carragher. The Red Devils scraped their way through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on Wednesday night with a 1-0 away win over Nottingham Forest.

Casemiro scored a controversial late winner to send Ten Hag's men through and to book a quarter-final date with rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford. But instead of basking in the joy of a late win, Ten Hag called out Carragher for his 'subjective' criticism during his post-match press conference.

"Some analysts are very objective in their comments, very good advice, some are very subjective," said Ten Hag. "Jamie Carragher, from the first moment on, has criticised and now he wants to make his point."

On the back of those comments, United legend Neville has admitted his 'heart sunk' when he saw the Dutchman getting involved in the situation rather than keeping his thoughts private. “I must admit that when I saw it appear, my heart sank a little, from a Manchester United perspective, that he was getting involved in that. He might be secretly or privately annoyed and think there are some points you made that are wrong," he told the Stick to Football podcast.

"But [he has to think], 'We have conceded a lot of chances, I’m not going to win this one, we’ve just lost a game, got a big game against Nottingham Forest, let’s not look like I’m even interested in that'. That was my thinking.”

As for Carragher, he has issued his own response to Ten Hag, adding: "I didn’t say anything too different to what I’ve said this season, and I wanted to discuss this on Monday Night Football two weeks ago. United had won four games on the bounce, and I came into the show thinking that I’d like to analyse Man United when they’ve won.

“What I was going to say was, ‘this is not sustainable’. They were being a little bit lucky winning these games. The reason I chose United this weekend wasn’t because of the result – it was more the performance that I wanted to analyse. They’ve got Nottingham Forest in the cup, and Manchester City in the league. They’re tough games for them – if they lose them, everyone will be saying ‘Ten Hag out’. I thought let’s do it before everyone else does it. It was basically what we’ve been seeing all season.

"Teams now press from the front, press high and everyone is on the halfway line. Man United are trying to do two different things; the front six were going man-to-man pressing, and the back four were miles behind them. You’re either one or the other.”