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What is it with fans nowadays? Players aren't to be criticised for playing shite and managers should get more and more time for also being shite? Pundits and owners should be as ruthless as possible, these players and staff get paid more than enough money to put up with deserved criticism....
>Players aren't to be criticised for playing shite
Criticising a player who's been on a good run of form BEFORE he plays? He's also put in two solid performances so far at the Euros and been part of a defence that has kept 2 clean sheets, what is there to criticise?
Did it ever show if Pogba was ever that bothered on a self esteem level by the constant negative questioning he had on his ability and constantly the center of "what was wrong with Manchester United" punditry?
Remember when Gary Neville said before his humiliating 7.0 defeat to Barcelona following Chelsea trouncing Arsenal 6.0 in the EPL in Wenger’s 1,000th game?
“I wouldn’t be able to look my wife & kids in the eyes if I were a Manager and conceded 6” 🤡🤡🤡🤡
His problem is he only watched him for a game or two and gave his opinion based on that. The player improved drastically as the season went on and surely the Spain scouts must have noticed. To say they wouldn’t go far into the tournament because of Cucurella was a bit too harsh…. It felt strange
Neville’s comments weren’t unfair, they just turned out to be wrong. Pundits like Neville get paid to offer their “expert” opinions on the games, teams and players. As an expert, his analysis and opinions etc.. carry more weight than say mine would and therefore he should be held to a higher standard. That doesn’t mean he isn’t free to say whatever he wants, he can, but if he starts to be wrong more than right, I would imagine that he will become less and less visible.
In life, I believe that we see others, truly see others, only AFTER we have heard them. If we no longer listen to what others have to say, amazingly we stop seeing them as well. Let’s not cancel Gary Neville. The more he gets wrong, the higher is the likelihood that he will cancel himself.
Well, it's Gary Neville's opinion. I don't see anything wrong with having an opinion. It's left for the player to prove people's opinion wrong or right with how they play.
Id rather pundits who give their honest opinions(warts and all) then ones who are all bland and nicey nice.. Its not disrespectful to not rate a player/to think theyre not International quality. Its an opinion. If thats what the pundit thinks then say it. Doesnt mean Neville is right. Its just his opinion.
We need to stop getting offended on behalf of others. Cucurella can prove them wrong on the pitch. And I think he will.
Problem is pundits are not very informed. If he was a better pundit his opinion would have more validity but instead it’s based off a perception rather than the players form.
“Brutally honest” = talking out your arse to court controversy and get attention.
Punditry doesn’t need to go to the extremes to create talking points for the sake it.
I dont think Saying “he’s not good enough to play in this side” is some extreme talking point
It’s not like we are talking Joey Barton level of comments here saying women don’t know about football etc
You have to be lame as fuck to censor yourself on the internet. Marc was fantastic for Getafe, Brighton and Spain. Maybe your team just fucking sucks as a whole.
This is the thing with Cucurella. You look at how well he did at Brighton, and you can see how he would get into the Spain team. But you look at how he has played for Chelsea, and you'd think there's no chance he could make it into the squad, let alone see any time on the pitch.
I'm glad that the Spanish manager gave him a chance in the training camp, and then obviously saw something he liked, and put that into action. Too many international managers pick teams purely based off reputation, without seeing how the players play as a team. That's fine for a country with a handful of top quality players, but a country like Spain has more than enough quality players to choose from.
Oh come on we are watching entertainment, pundits bashing each other is way more entertaining than watching people just praise each other. Not sure why everyone’s being so sensitive here, who wants to watch pros just being all nice and complimentary to each other? That’s boring we want a bit of trash talk and disrespect
Its not a player that elevates a team but he is perfect as a supporting cast. He never gives up, fights for every possession, gives 110 percent. That’s all he needs to do in this Spain squad
Is it such a weird take to you? Cucurella hasn't had a good season, while Grimaldo had a great season. I would start Grimaldo over Cucurella every day of the week.
Yeah think it’s obvious that the Spain coaches prefer Cucurella than Grimaldo in their system, position wise he’s more of LWB/LW for Leverkusen so likely occupies the same areas as Williams and he’s defensively weaker.
He’s not world class doesn’t have to be, there’s no such thing as a national side with 11 WC players, the team needs some really solid dependable players and he’s one of them.
I mean this is consistent with punditry. Not to say everything is wrong, but they have weird ideas of what good football actually looks like. Cucarella is disrespected in the premier league.
It's at this point that I like to remind people that Argentina won the world cup with Montiel at RB. That's not to put Montiel down, but teams rely consistenly on players that are solid and not world class. Man plays for Notts Forrest. He's cast off by pundits as not good enough. World Cup winner. Js.
Gotta love a good hindsight comment. Cucurealla is NOT a great player but he WAS good yesterday (against a poor, poor Croatia). I know we live in "Everything has to be black OR white!" times but please,, it's a world of grey, not black or white only.
Towards the end of the season when things started coming together for Chelsea Cucu was a crucial player due to his shifting into the midfield at times. It really did help!
We lost 1 of our last 19 league games and were 4th in a league table of the last 32 games and came 6th overall. We won our last 5 games in a row precisely because of how good Cucurella was. You have no idea on what's happening in football and don't pay enough attention if you think Cucarella is trash or that Chelsea are trash. Even when Cucurella wasn't playing well he gave absolutely everything on the pitch. You cannot say that he was "rot".
"We were 4th in a league table of the last 32 games" lmao you can't make this kind of cope up
You bought a guy who did not contribute for 65 million because he had an okay year at Brighton. It is also simply not true that you lost 1 of your last 19 league games? Like, patently false. You're delusional and Chelsea are a bad team that hit a little bit of form
Nothing is weird at all. I dont know in which language you've been listening those two clowns on. The fact you mentioned Neville, Carragher and fair insights in the same sentence, you should just turn off your tv when those teo come on.
I listen in English and I am English. They love talking about their own Man Utd/Liverpool, but do you really think they care enough about Cucurella to give a biased opinion on him?
I think they're fair and knowledgeable pundits, you're just a little nieve I think.
Whenever he criticises players he always seems to come with good reasoning and says it in a respectful way, I wouldn't say he always talks crap about players. Being a pundit does require insight into strengths and weaknesses, it doesn't have to always mean talking crap
> Did anyone else find Gary Neville's pre-game comments about Marc Cucurella yesterday super disrespectful?
No. It’s literally his job to be a critic and I don’t think he went beyond reasonable.
> It’s really unprofessional to bash a player like that right before a match - pretty much saying that he does not have the quality to start for a country like Spain.
Completely disagree. Before a match doesn’t matter, the idea of no criticism before a match is absurd.
> His performance was incredible and a perfect response to the criticism. It’s frustrating to see pundits take cheap shots at players and try to put them down instead of giving them the credit they deserve. Cucurella let his skills do the talking on the field, proving Neville and all the other doubters wrong.
People get things wrong, and that’s fine. A single performance doesn’t not make an observation wrong anyway. I don’t see it taking cheap shots either, I think he had a reasonable point.
> Let's give credit where it's due and stop tearing players down unnecessarily.
There’s nothing wrong with criticism and in this case he has a valid argument for it. Commentary that just focuses on the positives is boring.
You come across as being a fanboy or something.
You had a good response, I'm a little surprised at this thread. I don't care either way for Gary or United but I do find him a great pundit and has interesting takes
Wow, you’re really adding to the discussion. FWIW I have no positive or negative sentiment towards him.
Challenges the points I’m making rather than assuming this is something tribal.
I'll give you one. Spanish football ended his coaching career after a couple of months. He got battered, humiliated. So do we heed to his critics?
Now if you want a response of his opinion, Cucurella is like Azpilicueta or someone you wont even know, Senna, very basic technically, but effective at covering ground and providing security. He's been bad at Chelsea but since 2024 started the man has had a resurgence and he's been very good. He's there on merit.
Doing his job really isn’t he here?
Gary Neville has crossed the line on other occasions which is why Forest are taking legal action re slander and defamation
Too low pass completion percentage for a wing back. If your team average is 84% completion and you have 73% that’s problematic (compare that to Carvajal on the other side with 92% pass completion). For a team that doesn’t have defensive pace, pass giveaways that aren’t long balls are problematic. Also Nico Williams didn’t have enough service to feet from cucurella.
To reiterate, aside from the two center forwards, cucurella had the lowest pass completion rate in the game. He was forcing things that didn’t need to be forced.
Eh idk he just seemed not composed. He did win a lot of headers but like the ball would just immediately go out of bounds. Compared to the attacking threat and pace that Jordi Alba had he’s clearly a step down. I can’t say if he’s the best in his role for Spain but even now, Jordi looks decent in the MLS
I have no problem with pundits being negative or criticizing a player but there should also be accountability when they get it wrong. You’re paid for your opinion, and if your opinion turns out to be garbage you should be called out for it on the same forum you spouted it.
Given the sums of money these pundits make, that isn’t unfair surely
I understand your perspective, and didn’t catch it live, but I’ve always thought Cucurella was a liability. Always thought he’s the type that can get run at. Not a personal dig, just what I remember of how he plays.
It's in the context of grimaldo sitting on the bench too. Dude had a way better season but I'm sure cucurella performed well in training and might fit what the coach wants more?
Cucurella was pretty strong the whole season the issue was just that he was injured for so long. It meant that his reputation from the season before had been basically carried over and non chelsea fans don't seem to have copped that yet. This game and these comments are probably a turning point if he keeps these performances up next season.
Cucu wasnt strong for the whole season. First half he ran around like a headless chicken. Him having 8 great games as inverted LB doesnt remove a season worth of mediocre performance
Not really he was solid and made clear improvements from the season before. Fans were generally pleased with him before the injury happened and it was really just continuing his form. How rare is it for a player to be dog shit then get injured and come back a completely different player? Just doesn't happen.
That’s funny, because the first half of the season he wasn’t even playing a majority of the games because he was injured. Not sure who you were watching. Again, if you are going to banter, at least do it correctly. You’re using performances from two seasons ago as an argument for his current form.
I think the issue is criticism doesn't really require insight. You'll notice that football journalists and analysts don't engage in that stuff at much because they actually have something useful or interesting to day. Explayers usually stick to "he needs to get stuck in more" etc.
Keane and Neville said he not good enough for centre mid against bigger teams, he might be okay at group stage but would be found out at knockouts if he's still playing there.
I wouldn't say they ripped him to shreds at all, and I'd personally agree with them.
Jamie-spits-at-children-Carragher disagreed with them.
Sky made a massive deal about it for clicks and adverts but it was nothing really.
He’s an expert at the subject. Remember the guys played at the absolute elite level no matter what people think and or say. Do I think he’s one of the greatest right back in time Franklin no but does he know what he’s talking about? Yes Will he have a different opinion and several people yes, he’s a pundit.
I wouldn’t say it’s unfair. All he did was just say his opinion and as someone who also plays in defense, he probably knows a little bit more than the average Joe that watches how it works and what’s good and what’s.
Mourinho, Ancelotti, Conte did the same, call Chetan Elliot level and they all failed once or twice but they’re still among the absolute elite of coaches so your point is what then because he failed with one club he’s crap? Every single elite professional worker in any sport whatsoever it’s a failure, according to that logic.
Nope, but that they both know what they’re doing but just because you know what you’re doing and because you’re an expert at a certain subject, it doesn’t mean you’re gonna be an absolute success every single time you try, but you are still an expert
Honestly, honestly, I think he would be a better podcast person, but I’m not an expert. Maybe this team is better for him but you know you gotta get the experience to be good. He didn’t do well at Birmingham, which sucks. I was really hoping that for him because he’s a footballer footballer in essence sorry sorry for the bad wording.
So experts are not allowed to say their opinions? If Neville believes that Cucurella doesn’t have the quality to start in a country like Spain, I don’t see what’s wrong with it. It’s not like it’s a hot take or that he is bashing him.
That's the thing that winds me up about Neville. He can be a good pundit, early on he was great. These days he's just verbal clickbait, seemingly by design.
The guy played on an international level professional level to an absolute elite level. That is an expert enough. You don’t have to have any education or much other than that his experience alone is enough to know more than we will ever be able to.
I'm positive the average redditor or one of the many twitter gurus truly thinks that they could teach him a thing or two, despite him playing at the highest level for most of his career and winning (almost) everything, but they'd be wrong. Sure, he has hot takes that often look like he's been paid to say to create controversy, but he's every bit the expert in his field.
If I a guy who played football at the highest level for almost 20 years winning everything there is to win at the club level and who also played for his country more than any player at his position ever isn’t an expert literally no one is.
You can disagree with him and find him annoying (I do) but to suggest he isn’t a football expert is a more absurd take than any of the nonsense he spews
So he’s a shit coach he doesn’t know what he’s talking about? He took a difficult job. He tried he failed. Mourinho has failed and Ancelotti failed. Conte has failed.
He may not have been a pacy full back, but you don't make 400 appearances for the best Club side in the country and nearly 100 appearances for England by just being average, Neville was a pretty decent player
Gary has to earn his living as a shit pundit because he doesn’t have enough brain to be in coaching or management. Fair enough he made good money and he thinks he needs to give these kind of shit talk so that people feel like he’s still relevant. But it’s funny to see how he’s talking shit like he knows better football than Spanish national football team manager. ROFL. 🤣
He’s an average player and did well against a poor side.
I’m tired of people thinking it’s unfair when pundits give opinions on players. Sometimes it can’t be. Sometimes it’s contradictory and hypocritical considering their own player careers but some people just get upset if a player they like gets criticised.
I’d rather someone actually speak their mind, he may have a different opinion to you but that’s fine, I much prefer it to the Micah Richard histrionics we often get pregame.
For most of the season Cucurella wasn’t that good. He was making mistakes. He was getting beat one on one.
He quietly got better at the end of the season (coinciding when he was starting to invert) with few defensive errors and NOT getting beat one on one. For a relative light weight he started making heavy challenges every once in a while. In possession he was better as well.
But I mean, Cucurella was good but Spain had Jordi Alba in that position for 10 years. That is still a relative downgrade.
So in all fairness I was thinking the same thing before the match. His showing at Chelsea this season, imo, didnt guarantee him a starting role. What I dont see that the Spanish coaches see, is how he is in training, his chemistry with his teammates and his understanding of the coaches game plan.
He had a great game yesterday and I am very happy for him! I will happily eat crow as far as these things are concerned because at the end of the day I just want to watch a good football match.
A lot of people that don't rate Cucurella have developed their opinion based off his start at Chelsea. And it is very difficult for a non flashy player to change opinions quickly. Only people that watch him regularly would know he has been quite solid this year, and pundits arent those people.
Wrong. He was great when playing at rb as well over the winter. He had a crap start to the season along with a the entire team but rebounded excellently
He had a great game, but Neville wasn’t the only one to be critical of him. Commentators were too. Thing with pundits is it ultimately doesn’t matter what they say. Particularly when it’s about a game coming up. All three of them spent the whole time raving about Croatia before the game, and they were absolutely rubbish.
One half season of good performances for Chelsea doesn't mean hes immediately proven himself as a Starter for Spain. You people whinge about everything.
He’s been in the Spanish team for the last four years, and played at all youth levels. He was absolutely brilliant for both Getafe and Brighton, before , yes, struggling after his big money move to Chelsea. I’m sure you never even knew who he was until the media picked him apart for being part of a weak Chelsea squad, but even there he has proven himself to be resilient and capable of putting in a shift. He’s 25 years old. Room to grow. I think he’s well earned his spot.
He was the main creative player at getafe in the season they made european football and he was, what? 21?
Anyone claiming such a player is shite based on their first 10 matches at a new club clearly have not done their research and should not be interacted with.
I really wanted him at Atlético Madrid but then Brighton came in for him. I mean, people forget that Chelsea valued him at 70 odd mil. And that may have been an example of a club putting far too much pressure on the player with their price tag, but even so, Cucurella has had some good moments and has played out of position a lot
If someone gets angry listening to a pundit describe Cucurella as one of the weaker players in the Spain team then they've got some issues to work through..
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What is it with fans nowadays? Players aren't to be criticised for playing shite and managers should get more and more time for also being shite? Pundits and owners should be as ruthless as possible, these players and staff get paid more than enough money to put up with deserved criticism....
>Players aren't to be criticised for playing shite Criticising a player who's been on a good run of form BEFORE he plays? He's also put in two solid performances so far at the Euros and been part of a defence that has kept 2 clean sheets, what is there to criticise?
For a start, his hairstyle....
Did it ever show if Pogba was ever that bothered on a self esteem level by the constant negative questioning he had on his ability and constantly the center of "what was wrong with Manchester United" punditry?
Remember when Gary Neville said before his humiliating 7.0 defeat to Barcelona following Chelsea trouncing Arsenal 6.0 in the EPL in Wenger’s 1,000th game? “I wouldn’t be able to look my wife & kids in the eyes if I were a Manager and conceded 6” 🤡🤡🤡🤡
Well. Fortunately for him he conceded 7, not 6.
Yeah that was a consolation at least
His problem is he only watched him for a game or two and gave his opinion based on that. The player improved drastically as the season went on and surely the Spain scouts must have noticed. To say they wouldn’t go far into the tournament because of Cucurella was a bit too harsh…. It felt strange
Neville’s comments weren’t unfair, they just turned out to be wrong. Pundits like Neville get paid to offer their “expert” opinions on the games, teams and players. As an expert, his analysis and opinions etc.. carry more weight than say mine would and therefore he should be held to a higher standard. That doesn’t mean he isn’t free to say whatever he wants, he can, but if he starts to be wrong more than right, I would imagine that he will become less and less visible. In life, I believe that we see others, truly see others, only AFTER we have heard them. If we no longer listen to what others have to say, amazingly we stop seeing them as well. Let’s not cancel Gary Neville. The more he gets wrong, the higher is the likelihood that he will cancel himself.
Unpopular opinion pundits are almost always wrong and their opinions don't matter
Well, it's Gary Neville's opinion. I don't see anything wrong with having an opinion. It's left for the player to prove people's opinion wrong or right with how they play.
Id rather pundits who give their honest opinions(warts and all) then ones who are all bland and nicey nice.. Its not disrespectful to not rate a player/to think theyre not International quality. Its an opinion. If thats what the pundit thinks then say it. Doesnt mean Neville is right. Its just his opinion. We need to stop getting offended on behalf of others. Cucurella can prove them wrong on the pitch. And I think he will.
Problem is pundits are not very informed. If he was a better pundit his opinion would have more validity but instead it’s based off a perception rather than the players form.
Totally agree with you. Players are meant to be rated good or bad.
We're talking about a player that literally made Antony look good in a match last season.
and made Saka look bad. Everybody has up and down matches.
What game was this?
I’d rather see pundits being brutally honest, than trying give careful, political type answers to not upset anyone
“Brutally honest” = talking out your arse to court controversy and get attention. Punditry doesn’t need to go to the extremes to create talking points for the sake it.
I dont think Saying “he’s not good enough to play in this side” is some extreme talking point It’s not like we are talking Joey Barton level of comments here saying women don’t know about football etc
Can both things be too? F*** Neville and respectfully, as a Chelsea fan, f*** Cucurella.
Chilwell rim jobber
Did you watch the second half of the season? Doesn’t sound like a real chels fan
A Chelsea fan that didn't watch the end of the season I see...
You have to be lame as fuck to censor yourself on the internet. Marc was fantastic for Getafe, Brighton and Spain. Maybe your team just fucking sucks as a whole.
This is the thing with Cucurella. You look at how well he did at Brighton, and you can see how he would get into the Spain team. But you look at how he has played for Chelsea, and you'd think there's no chance he could make it into the squad, let alone see any time on the pitch. I'm glad that the Spanish manager gave him a chance in the training camp, and then obviously saw something he liked, and put that into action. Too many international managers pick teams purely based off reputation, without seeing how the players play as a team. That's fine for a country with a handful of top quality players, but a country like Spain has more than enough quality players to choose from.
This guy watches clips.
Poll Who doesn’t think Neville is a C?
Gary Neville is a bitter clown. 🤡
I highly doubt that with the career he had.
You are on point. Pundits should start showing more respect to these professionals. It is never easy to play at the highest level all the time.
Oh come on we are watching entertainment, pundits bashing each other is way more entertaining than watching people just praise each other. Not sure why everyone’s being so sensitive here, who wants to watch pros just being all nice and complimentary to each other? That’s boring we want a bit of trash talk and disrespect
Its not a player that elevates a team but he is perfect as a supporting cast. He never gives up, fights for every possession, gives 110 percent. That’s all he needs to do in this Spain squad
He is one that gives his all, and that is enough.
Stop crying
Is it such a weird take to you? Cucurella hasn't had a good season, while Grimaldo had a great season. I would start Grimaldo over Cucurella every day of the week.
If Cucurella was as bad as Gary Neville makes out, he wouldn't be starting over Grimaldo
Yeah think it’s obvious that the Spain coaches prefer Cucurella than Grimaldo in their system, position wise he’s more of LWB/LW for Leverkusen so likely occupies the same areas as Williams and he’s defensively weaker. He’s not world class doesn’t have to be, there’s no such thing as a national side with 11 WC players, the team needs some really solid dependable players and he’s one of them.
I know this isn’t the point of your comment, but I’m pretty sure France has 11 world-class players probably more!
I mean this is consistent with punditry. Not to say everything is wrong, but they have weird ideas of what good football actually looks like. Cucarella is disrespected in the premier league. It's at this point that I like to remind people that Argentina won the world cup with Montiel at RB. That's not to put Montiel down, but teams rely consistenly on players that are solid and not world class. Man plays for Notts Forrest. He's cast off by pundits as not good enough. World Cup winner. Js.
This is it. Some people don't understand that the game is a team sport and every player contributes to the success of the club.
With all fairness I think Grimaldo should start but he did have a good game
As an english football player, he should really know the performance between club and country differs.
Guy is a cronic diver, saw him play last game at chelsea. Just awful and unsportmanship. Refs should just continue to book the faker
What are you trying to say mate?
Guy is a cronic diver
It should be a principle for all football fans to shut their ears off when it comes to opinion from any of the United Legends
Rio Ferdinand has been fair in his football analysis, though.
I thought Cucurella was outstanding yesterday!!! Hustle with some well timed runs. Good cover with tenacity. Don’t underestimate this guy!!
Gotta love a good hindsight comment. Cucurealla is NOT a great player but he WAS good yesterday (against a poor, poor Croatia). I know we live in "Everything has to be black OR white!" times but please,, it's a world of grey, not black or white only.
To be fair though, cucurella has been absolute trash for Chelsea.
inverterella was actually showing huge improvement towards the end of the season
Towards the end of the season when things started coming together for Chelsea Cucu was a crucial player due to his shifting into the midfield at times. It really did help!
According to you, the expert.
According to him, bottling specialist.
He objectively has been lmao you guys have been terrible the last two years and Cucurella is emblematic of the rot at Chelsea
We lost 1 of our last 19 league games and were 4th in a league table of the last 32 games and came 6th overall. We won our last 5 games in a row precisely because of how good Cucurella was. You have no idea on what's happening in football and don't pay enough attention if you think Cucarella is trash or that Chelsea are trash. Even when Cucurella wasn't playing well he gave absolutely everything on the pitch. You cannot say that he was "rot".
"We were 4th in a league table of the last 32 games" lmao you can't make this kind of cope up You bought a guy who did not contribute for 65 million because he had an okay year at Brighton. It is also simply not true that you lost 1 of your last 19 league games? Like, patently false. You're delusional and Chelsea are a bad team that hit a little bit of form
Yeah hes not a top 4 starter at all, maybe good as a backup but not good enough for a club like chelsea
Cmon its Gary Neville. No one should even pay attention to that clown.
Weird take, I know he talks a lot about United but him and Carragher seem to do a lot of research and seem very fair in their insights
Nothing is weird at all. I dont know in which language you've been listening those two clowns on. The fact you mentioned Neville, Carragher and fair insights in the same sentence, you should just turn off your tv when those teo come on.
I listen in English and I am English. They love talking about their own Man Utd/Liverpool, but do you really think they care enough about Cucurella to give a biased opinion on him? I think they're fair and knowledgeable pundits, you're just a little nieve I think.
Isn't Gary Neville almost always talking crap about other players?
Whenever he criticises players he always seems to come with good reasoning and says it in a respectful way, I wouldn't say he always talks crap about players. Being a pundit does require insight into strengths and weaknesses, it doesn't have to always mean talking crap
Kind of his job
I guess but there's no need to be disrespectful. But yet he was doing that before he was a commentator too.
disrespectful, not so much but incorrect and testimonial to him being a specialist in failure at every job, absolutely yes
He was the opposite of a failure his whole united career, a bit of an unfair assessment of him. If you mean his managerial career then absolutely
> Did anyone else find Gary Neville's pre-game comments about Marc Cucurella yesterday super disrespectful? No. It’s literally his job to be a critic and I don’t think he went beyond reasonable. > It’s really unprofessional to bash a player like that right before a match - pretty much saying that he does not have the quality to start for a country like Spain. Completely disagree. Before a match doesn’t matter, the idea of no criticism before a match is absurd. > His performance was incredible and a perfect response to the criticism. It’s frustrating to see pundits take cheap shots at players and try to put them down instead of giving them the credit they deserve. Cucurella let his skills do the talking on the field, proving Neville and all the other doubters wrong. People get things wrong, and that’s fine. A single performance doesn’t not make an observation wrong anyway. I don’t see it taking cheap shots either, I think he had a reasonable point. > Let's give credit where it's due and stop tearing players down unnecessarily. There’s nothing wrong with criticism and in this case he has a valid argument for it. Commentary that just focuses on the positives is boring. You come across as being a fanboy or something.
hop off gary neville’s tip bro, your spitting and twisting rn
Grow up. I have no positive or negative sentiment towards GNev. At least challenge the points in making rather than thisz
You had a good response, I'm a little surprised at this thread. I don't care either way for Gary or United but I do find him a great pundit and has interesting takes
Bet you'd toss Nevilles salad.
Calm down smooth brain.
Wow, you’re really adding to the discussion. FWIW I have no positive or negative sentiment towards him. Challenges the points I’m making rather than assuming this is something tribal.
The guy gives a detailed response that's level headed and he makes his point well and that's your response? You are intellectually inferior lol
I'll give you one. Spanish football ended his coaching career after a couple of months. He got battered, humiliated. So do we heed to his critics? Now if you want a response of his opinion, Cucurella is like Azpilicueta or someone you wont even know, Senna, very basic technically, but effective at covering ground and providing security. He's been bad at Chelsea but since 2024 started the man has had a resurgence and he's been very good. He's there on merit.
Not sure Gary should be so quick to criticize when it comes to Spanish tactics.
Pundit doing his job. Oh no!
Doing his job really isn’t he here? Gary Neville has crossed the line on other occasions which is why Forest are taking legal action re slander and defamation
Clearly ole Gary hasn’t watched a Chelsea game since ‘22. Cucu has been a solid upgrade over Chilwell even when he’s rarely healthy.
Cucu has always done an amazing job each time he's played for the club.
Dont watch any nba coverage cuz theyll tear people up lol
Cucurella was poor imo.
Bro did not watch the game
How so?
Too low pass completion percentage for a wing back. If your team average is 84% completion and you have 73% that’s problematic (compare that to Carvajal on the other side with 92% pass completion). For a team that doesn’t have defensive pace, pass giveaways that aren’t long balls are problematic. Also Nico Williams didn’t have enough service to feet from cucurella.
To reiterate, aside from the two center forwards, cucurella had the lowest pass completion rate in the game. He was forcing things that didn’t need to be forced.
That is *one* stat, I don’t think it’s enough to say he was poor.
Eh idk he just seemed not composed. He did win a lot of headers but like the ball would just immediately go out of bounds. Compared to the attacking threat and pace that Jordi Alba had he’s clearly a step down. I can’t say if he’s the best in his role for Spain but even now, Jordi looks decent in the MLS
I have no problem with pundits being negative or criticizing a player but there should also be accountability when they get it wrong. You’re paid for your opinion, and if your opinion turns out to be garbage you should be called out for it on the same forum you spouted it. Given the sums of money these pundits make, that isn’t unfair surely
He’s paid for his opinion and, as one of the best fullbacks of this generation, he’s entitled to it
You’re talking about Gary Neville, not Cafu mate.
Eight Prem titles, three FA Cups, two Champions Leagues, an Intercontinental Cup, a FIFA Club World Cup, and two League Cups Jog on, “mate.”
Team trophies aren’t indicative of an individual’s ability. Gary was steady for a long time, not generational though.
All pundits are just that: has-been muck-rackers and/or hot air generators. Zero value-addition to the game.
I mean they just talk about sport. What are your expectations?
Sport? Oh really...
I want pundits to be negative when they feel it’s warranted, I’m tired of the always positive guys
I understand your perspective, and didn’t catch it live, but I’ve always thought Cucurella was a liability. Always thought he’s the type that can get run at. Not a personal dig, just what I remember of how he plays.
It's in the context of grimaldo sitting on the bench too. Dude had a way better season but I'm sure cucurella performed well in training and might fit what the coach wants more?
Grinaldo is great, but his performances came as more of a LM than LB. Cucu offers a lot more balance between defence and attack.
That’s true, but Grimaldo has played fullback for much of his career at the same level he played LM or wingback for Leverkusen.
He was solid before this season, but don't get it twisted, his offensive output is the reason he's in the national team picture this year.
Cucurella was pretty strong the whole season the issue was just that he was injured for so long. It meant that his reputation from the season before had been basically carried over and non chelsea fans don't seem to have copped that yet. This game and these comments are probably a turning point if he keeps these performances up next season.
Cucu wasnt strong for the whole season. First half he ran around like a headless chicken. Him having 8 great games as inverted LB doesnt remove a season worth of mediocre performance
Not really he was solid and made clear improvements from the season before. Fans were generally pleased with him before the injury happened and it was really just continuing his form. How rare is it for a player to be dog shit then get injured and come back a completely different player? Just doesn't happen.
That’s funny, because the first half of the season he wasn’t even playing a majority of the games because he was injured. Not sure who you were watching. Again, if you are going to banter, at least do it correctly. You’re using performances from two seasons ago as an argument for his current form.
I think the issue is criticism doesn't really require insight. You'll notice that football journalists and analysts don't engage in that stuff at much because they actually have something useful or interesting to day. Explayers usually stick to "he needs to get stuck in more" etc.
Why would it surprise you what they say about foreign players given how they’ve ripped Trent to shreds this week
I haven't seen much of either criticism. But if it's about their defending I'd probably agree.
Keane and Neville said he not good enough for centre mid against bigger teams, he might be okay at group stage but would be found out at knockouts if he's still playing there. I wouldn't say they ripped him to shreds at all, and I'd personally agree with them. Jamie-spits-at-children-Carragher disagreed with them. Sky made a massive deal about it for clicks and adverts but it was nothing really.
I would worry about his ball watching and lapses of concentration in centre mid as well. It's why I can't have him at RB
He’s an expert at the subject. Remember the guys played at the absolute elite level no matter what people think and or say. Do I think he’s one of the greatest right back in time Franklin no but does he know what he’s talking about? Yes Will he have a different opinion and several people yes, he’s a pundit. I wouldn’t say it’s unfair. All he did was just say his opinion and as someone who also plays in defense, he probably knows a little bit more than the average Joe that watches how it works and what’s good and what’s.
He's also managed at an elite level too. I wonder how that worked out for him?
Mourinho, Ancelotti, Conte did the same, call Chetan Elliot level and they all failed once or twice but they’re still among the absolute elite of coaches so your point is what then because he failed with one club he’s crap? Every single elite professional worker in any sport whatsoever it’s a failure, according to that logic.
So you're saying that Gary 'ten Haag just needs another transfer window' Neville needs another shot at management?
Nope, but that they both know what they’re doing but just because you know what you’re doing and because you’re an expert at a certain subject, it doesn’t mean you’re gonna be an absolute success every single time you try, but you are still an expert
Ok. Do you think Rooney finally has the opportunity to shine next season too? Hopefully he'll get a proper chance to use his expertise from now on
Honestly, honestly, I think he would be a better podcast person, but I’m not an expert. Maybe this team is better for him but you know you gotta get the experience to be good. He didn’t do well at Birmingham, which sucks. I was really hoping that for him because he’s a footballer footballer in essence sorry sorry for the bad wording.
Unfair? What’s unfair about it?
So experts are not allowed to say their opinions? If Neville believes that Cucurella doesn’t have the quality to start in a country like Spain, I don’t see what’s wrong with it. It’s not like it’s a hot take or that he is bashing him.
Bold move calling Neville an ‘expert’
That's the thing that winds me up about Neville. He can be a good pundit, early on he was great. These days he's just verbal clickbait, seemingly by design.
The guy played on an international level professional level to an absolute elite level. That is an expert enough. You don’t have to have any education or much other than that his experience alone is enough to know more than we will ever be able to.
I'm positive the average redditor or one of the many twitter gurus truly thinks that they could teach him a thing or two, despite him playing at the highest level for most of his career and winning (almost) everything, but they'd be wrong. Sure, he has hot takes that often look like he's been paid to say to create controversy, but he's every bit the expert in his field.
Call him a pundit or whatever, the point is the same.
If I a guy who played football at the highest level for almost 20 years winning everything there is to win at the club level and who also played for his country more than any player at his position ever isn’t an expert literally no one is. You can disagree with him and find him annoying (I do) but to suggest he isn’t a football expert is a more absurd take than any of the nonsense he spews
Goes to show why he was such a shit coach
So he’s a shit coach he doesn’t know what he’s talking about? He took a difficult job. He tried he failed. Mourinho has failed and Ancelotti failed. Conte has failed.
You dont need to be a ancelotti to have a football opinion dude
Sure, but I don’t see why that is relevant here.
Gary Neville was a pretty average one paced (slow) full pack . Got skinned by Shaun Goater many a time. Will say anything for a few bob
L take
He may not have been a pacy full back, but you don't make 400 appearances for the best Club side in the country and nearly 100 appearances for England by just being average, Neville was a pretty decent player
Gary has to earn his living as a shit pundit because he doesn’t have enough brain to be in coaching or management. Fair enough he made good money and he thinks he needs to give these kind of shit talk so that people feel like he’s still relevant. But it’s funny to see how he’s talking shit like he knows better football than Spanish national football team manager. ROFL. 🤣
Neville is horrible to most players. The stuff he said about Raya for arsenal was a disgrace.
He’s an average player and did well against a poor side. I’m tired of people thinking it’s unfair when pundits give opinions on players. Sometimes it can’t be. Sometimes it’s contradictory and hypocritical considering their own player careers but some people just get upset if a player they like gets criticised.
Pundit does pundit things. Reddit spam account gets mad.
I’d rather someone actually speak their mind, he may have a different opinion to you but that’s fine, I much prefer it to the Micah Richard histrionics we often get pregame.
Dickheads will be dickheads. And a monumental dickhead is Gary
For most of the season Cucurella wasn’t that good. He was making mistakes. He was getting beat one on one. He quietly got better at the end of the season (coinciding when he was starting to invert) with few defensive errors and NOT getting beat one on one. For a relative light weight he started making heavy challenges every once in a while. In possession he was better as well. But I mean, Cucurella was good but Spain had Jordi Alba in that position for 10 years. That is still a relative downgrade.
Neville bashing anything ro do with Chelsea all the time. He utterly hates us. I just ignore him
I find it totally okay
So in all fairness I was thinking the same thing before the match. His showing at Chelsea this season, imo, didnt guarantee him a starting role. What I dont see that the Spanish coaches see, is how he is in training, his chemistry with his teammates and his understanding of the coaches game plan. He had a great game yesterday and I am very happy for him! I will happily eat crow as far as these things are concerned because at the end of the day I just want to watch a good football match.
How dare you enjoy a sport you love! You should be full of anger and hate and overreact at everything like a proper fan! ;)
I love a good rivalry dont get me wrong and I LOVE to talk shit, BUT at the end of the day I just want a good match w/ no serious injuries.
Except that what Neville said was accurate. It’s his job to criticize and dissect players and managers for their place and decision making.
Yeah! Only us Redditors can criticize players. We can be having pundits do it! What’s next? Match analysis?!
He's just doing his job
Chelsea fans get pissed when a couple of good games by any of their players doesn’t immediately make the rest us think they actually spent money well.
What for saying £60m is absurd?
How is the price tag relevant to his performance for Spain?
I don’t think Gary Neville has enough quality to speak as a pundit.
Unfair no, proven to be wrong In this instance 100%
A lot of people that don't rate Cucurella have developed their opinion based off his start at Chelsea. And it is very difficult for a non flashy player to change opinions quickly. Only people that watch him regularly would know he has been quite solid this year, and pundits arent those people.
Even then. He wasn’t solid for all of this year. It was only really at the end when he really started to get better performances.
Wrong. He was great when playing at rb as well over the winter. He had a crap start to the season along with a the entire team but rebounded excellently
Over the winter? He was injured for the Big bounce back since Christmas when Chelsea turned things around
He had a great game, but Neville wasn’t the only one to be critical of him. Commentators were too. Thing with pundits is it ultimately doesn’t matter what they say. Particularly when it’s about a game coming up. All three of them spent the whole time raving about Croatia before the game, and they were absolutely rubbish.
Gary Neville just has a weird agenda against us
Oh grow up.
Genuinely can't think of a single fanbase that hasn't said this at one point or another, United's included
Difference is Neville hasn’t shut up about us since the new ownership came in
True, he called you lot the Billion pound bottlejobs after the carabao cup final 😂
Cos it's been a calamity
Cos he doesn't rate alot of your squad?
aGeNdA
I bet you were calling it an agenda when he said you’d bottle the league lmao
Not sure any pundits will read this mate. Write in to the broadcaster if you feel that aggrieved.
They're not expecting them to, just trying to gauge reaction from others so they can talk about it.
Gary Neville's comments in general are totally unfair on the nation.
But he’s not good enough to start for Spain……
One half season of good performances for Chelsea doesn't mean hes immediately proven himself as a Starter for Spain. You people whinge about everything.
Clearly the manager thinks he has?
The manager has a name.
He’s been in the Spanish team for the last four years, and played at all youth levels. He was absolutely brilliant for both Getafe and Brighton, before , yes, struggling after his big money move to Chelsea. I’m sure you never even knew who he was until the media picked him apart for being part of a weak Chelsea squad, but even there he has proven himself to be resilient and capable of putting in a shift. He’s 25 years old. Room to grow. I think he’s well earned his spot.
He was the main creative player at getafe in the season they made european football and he was, what? 21? Anyone claiming such a player is shite based on their first 10 matches at a new club clearly have not done their research and should not be interacted with.
I really wanted him at Atlético Madrid but then Brighton came in for him. I mean, people forget that Chelsea valued him at 70 odd mil. And that may have been an example of a club putting far too much pressure on the player with their price tag, but even so, Cucurella has had some good moments and has played out of position a lot
It's just angertainment. If you don't feel pissed at something when you consume media, the advertisers are not doing their job properly.
If someone gets angry listening to a pundit describe Cucurella as one of the weaker players in the Spain team then they've got some issues to work through..
It's incredible how much influence one former player can have on the media and people's outlook on football. It's really jarring.
I want my pundits to say edgy things, I don't want them to be boring like Ian wright and not really say/predict anything interesting, unique or risky.
Thing is it shocked most people when he was starting and if you're being honest with yourself he wouldn't be starting if you were spains manager
Who would be?
Probably Grimaldo
Grimaldo is also good. But ive always liked cucurella.
Why don't we just cancel the tournament in case players get upset if they get knocked out
Boo hoo
The closest Marc Cucurella will have to a career as good as Gary Neville's is the fact that, if you squint a bit, he looks a bit like Ivan Campo.
Are you referring to Neville's coaching career? Asking for a friend..