Gary Neville was shocked by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s decision to heavily rotate his Man Utd side in their 3-1 FA Cup loss to Leicester City on Sunday.
A brace from Kelechi Iheanacho and another goal from Youri Tielemans saw the Foxes through to the semi-finals with Mason Greenwood scoring the Red Devils’ only goal of the game.
Solskjaer made a number of changes from the Man Utd side that beat AC Milan in the Europa League during the week with the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Luke Shaw named on the substitutes bench.
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And Neville thinks Man Utd missed out on a “real chance” to win some silveware this season with Leicester drawing Southampton in their semi-final.
Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast: “Been a good week, not surprising they go to Milan and do what they did because they are good away from home.
“Beating West Ham last week, and then I’m surprised that the team has been rotated so much.
“I know he has been doing that, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but this was a real chance. You think about the semi final draw that occurred at half time in that game, which meant the winner played Southampton.
“It’s not a gimmy against Southampton in the semi final by any stretch of the imagination but what an opportunity. And I do think believe that group of players need to win a trophy under Solskjaer.
“Yes, of course, finishing second would be the priority at the start of the season and winning a trophy will now be the priority with that, they only have the Europa League left but that was a real good one today.
“They have a decent record at Leicester and I was in the car listening to the game, get back from behind and think ‘here we go’ not surprised with United away from home – but then that second and third goes in and it’s a massive missed opportunity.”
Neville added: “I am demoralised a little bit tonight as a United fan because I do feel that was a really good one to go for this season.
“And if you want to catch Manchester City, you’ve got to beat them. Got to beat them in the big game and a big competition.
“Spurs have that chance in a few weeks in a final and if Manchester City are going to be in a final, I know they have Chelsea, then Manchester United have got to be there to stop them.
“You can’t rely on other teams to stop them if you are the second best team in the country. If you have a half decent record against City, which United under Solskjaer have, then you’ve got to be the ones to stop them.
“If you think about in 1999, when Arsenal won the double the year before, we were the only team that could stop them in the semi final and we did stop them, hard work but we did stop them.
“Same in the league, you can’t wait for other teams to stop them for you, if you want to catch teams you have to leave one on them and I am disappointed with that tonight.
“I think United fans are disappointed, I have seen the reaction on social media.”
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