Manchester United legend Gary Neville has slammed Eric Bailly after the Manchester United defender conceded a penalty in Sunday’s Premier League fixture against Brighton.
Brighton made a strong start to the match and striker Glenn Murray turned home a cross to give the home side the lead on 25 minutes. The Red Devils found themselves two goals behind shortly after as Shane Duffy fired past David De Gea from a corner. Romelu Lukaku reduced the deficit with a header but Brighton restored their two-goal cushion before half-time as Pascal Gross scored from the spot after being taken out by Bailly inside the area.
‘There’s five centre backs at the club. Is there a pair among them who you would trust to take you to a title? That’s the question Jose [Mourinho] needs to answer,’ Neville told Sky Sports. ‘Every single United defender. They’re rash, they make tackles they don’t have to. It’s really poor from Bailly, it’s so poor. Jose will hate what he’s seeing. All of them [the defenders] dive in, every single one of them. He will be absolutely fuming. ‘You have to hang in there when your’re not playing well. The mistakes at the back. There’s no need to tackle, you’ve got to keep your composure. ‘He’s complaining, winging, moping around.’
Brighton handed the Red Devils their first loss of the season beating them by 3 goals to 2.
On 8 June 2016, Bailly joined Premier League side Manchester United for a reported fee of £30 million, signing a four-year contract, with the option of an additional two. He was the first player signed by their new manager José Mourinho.
He made his competitive debut on 7 August in a 2–1 win against Leicester City at Wembley Stadium to win the FA Community Shield, and was named man of the match. He was again named man of the match on his Premier League debut a week later, a 3–1 win at Bournemouth.
He was voted Manchester United’s Player of the Month for August 2016. Talking to MUTV, he said “The Man-of-the-Match awards are something I hadn’t thought about but I got them through the hard work I have put in. I hope to see more of that in the weeks ahead of us.”On 23 October 2016, Bailly was substituted off in the 52nd minute after suffering a serious knee injury during the 4–0 loss at Chelsea. He made 11 appearances as the Red Devils won the Europa League, and was named in the Squad of the Season.
On 19 August 2017, Bailly scored the first league goal of his club career, Manchester United’s first in a 4–0 away win over Swansea City, following up after Paul Pogba’s header came back off the underside of the crossbar