‘It’s a good time to play United’, claims Everton star ahead of Man Utd’s trip to Goodison Park

Everton winger Dwight McNeil has said it’s a ‘good time’ to play Manchester United following last week’s 6-3 defeat by Manchester City.

The Red Devils were soundly defeated at the Etihad last Sunday and also were far from their best in Thursday’s 3-2 Europa League win over Omonia Nicosia.

It’s a third consecutive away game on Sunday when United make the relatively short trip to Goodison Park to face an in-form Everton side.

The Toffees have won their last two and are unbeaten in six league games, while United’s star-studded squad have not looked at their best in recent matches.

“We look at the players rather than their transfer fees, we try to assess their strengths and weaknesses and how we can exploit what they are not good at,” McNeil said in an interview with the Daily Mail.

“There won’t be any feeling of inferiority,” he added. “Every team in the Premier League has top players. United do, so do we. We know the outcome we want. It’s a good time for us to play United. At the weekend, they had a hard game obviously.”

McNeil was also on United’s books as a youngster before being released as a teenager, but the former Burnley man said he has no regrets on how his career has panned out.

“My dad was a United fan and so was I,” he explained. “I went there at five years old but at 14 the coaches told my mum and dad I was released and they told me on the way home in the car.

“It was hard for me to take and my parents’ main concern was that I was alright. United told us in March and said I could stay until the end of the season, but we decided it was best to leave completely and I went on a six-week trial to Burnley.

“I think the feeling was to try and prove the people who made the decision wrong and I think I’ve managed to do that. Burnley helped me massively. While the quality wasn’t as good, people were faster and stronger and I was in the first-team dressing room at 17.

“Getting released by United was hard at the time but looking back now I don’t have any regrets.”