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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Vincent Whelan

RTE pundit Didi Hamann trolls Gary Neville over pre-match Cristiano Ronaldo opinion

Man United arguably hit their lowest point post-Alex Ferguson yesterday as they fell to an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Brentford - where The Bees did all of the damage in a catastrophic opening 35 minutes.

And sure enough, that result brought an avalanche of reaction from those decrying the current state of the club as well as those delighting in it.

READ MORE: Gary Neville's clash with Jamie Redknapp in full - "look at me when I'm talking to you"

Like anyone affiliated with Liverpool, Didi Hamann was happy to rub salt in the wound as he retweeted a pre-match clip of Gary Neville that now looked rather foolish.

In it, the Sky Sports pundit talked up what Cristiano Ronaldo being restored to the starting team would bring to the United line-up.

He used the unfortunate phrase that it was a 'guarantee of goals' but didn't specify to whom which Hamann seized upon to craft his punchline.

Retweeting it, the German said 'He's not wrong'.

Now, it would obviously be unfair to pin Ronaldo with all of the blame for how easy United were to cut open.

They were shambolic from back to front with the 37-year-old at least having the excuse of not being able to close down much anymore due to his age while younger teammates Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were equally culpable for not instituting any kind of meaningful press on Brentford as they instigated attack after attack.

The pre-season concerns about new centre-back Lisandro Martínez' size also look to be valid as his channel was repeatedly targeted aerially.

His ropey performance hit rock bottom for the third goal when he floundered in his attempt to cut out a header back across goal from a corner only for him to fall over which left Ben Mee the simply task of nodding in from a yard out.

The Argentine was one of three United flops to be hooked at half-time along with Luke Shaw and Fred but in truth any of them could've been hauled off without complaint.

Everyone was quick to get their best joke in (Twitter)

Erik ten Hag clearly has a huge job on his hands to try and rebuild this squad into even a Champions League outfit.

Afterwards, the Dutchman didn't hold back in his criticism of his own players.

He fumed: “It is difficult for me. It is always a surprise when you start a game like this.

"After 35 minutes we conceded four goals. This is not possible. The team has to take the responsibility, I feel really sorry for the fans who did everything to support us, we let them down.”

“They are good players, and have to take responsibility on the pitch, as a team and as individuals, and that’s what we didn’t do. I asked them to play with belief and take responsibility for their performance, and that’s what they didn’t do.

“It’s only when we stick together and work hard that we will overcome that. You have to take belief on to the pitch for yourself and the team.

“Don’t get me wrong, the manager is responsible as well, he has the main responsibility, and I take that. And I will work on that. I have to give them belief, but they have to give it by themselves."

Next up for the beleaguered Red Devils is the visit of Liverpool to Old Trafford so you'd imagine the likes of Hamann, Jamie Carragher, Robbie Fowler and Co will have another chance to fire off a few gags at the expense of their great rivals.

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