Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes that Erik ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino are not to blame for Manchester United and Chelsea starting the season poorly.

Neville claims that there are underlying “issues” at both clubs that emanate from the owners, which means the two managers are having to work under tough conditions:

“Chelsea and United are the way they are currently due to cultural issues and chaos. ETH and MP are good managers working in very difficult and challenging environments. Look up top!”

While United have lost 4 of their first 7 Premier League fixtures for the first time in their history, while Chelsea have won just once since Pochettino’s arrival (ahead of the Fulham game on Monday night).

There is an element of truth to Neville’s comments

The situation at United has been unstable for a while. Even before the Glazers announced that the club was up for sale, there was dysfunction in the upper management, which can be tracked back all the way to Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure a decade ago.

It has only been very recently that a modern football operation has been put in place, although how successful the restructuring has been, it is up for debate.

Ten Hag must take his fair share of the blame for United’s problems

Despite Neville seemingly absolving the current manager of any blame, though, ten Hag has to take responsibility for the poor performances on the pitch.

The Dutchman has spent €445m (according to Transfermarkt) since his arrival at Old Trafford 15 months ago. He cannot say that he hasn’t been backed in terms of signings.

Yet, the displays on the pitch have seemingly regressed since the back end of last season. Ten Hag needs to address this decline quickly or he could find himself out of a job.

Watch this video on Shots! TV previewing Manchester United and Manchester City’s upcoming games