Manchester United: Gary Neville suggests his former club take inspiration from Liverpool’s success as they look to rebuild

The former England right-back has criticised United’s recruitment and advised them to follow Liverpool’s lead

Gary Neville has suggested his former club Manchester United follow the lead of rivals Liverpool and improve their recruitment as they look to rebuild.

United have fallen into a pattern of steady decline since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, a slide exacerbated by the failure of a number of supposed marquee signings.

Neville, who retired in 2011 after winning 20 trophies at Old Trafford, has now said that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side lack a solid spine, and could draw from the success of Liverpool as they look to become Premier League contenders again.

"The problem with United's team is not the five young players on the pitch. The spine of the team is [David] De Gea, [Victor] Lindelof, [Harry] Maguire, [Nemanja] Matic, [Ashley] Young, [Juan] Mata. All the young players have massive potential," Neville said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football.

"Manchester United somehow have got to find a spine. All championship winning teams have strong spines.

"Liverpool's spine has come from [Virgil] Van Dijk at £75million, [Roberto] Firmino's £30million, Alisson, a fantastic goalkeeper, and Fabinho. The recruitment has got to be good to support these players.

"Liverpool bought Van Dijk, Fabinho and Alisson and they were transformed overnight. Manchester United get the right three players in that group and they won't be far away."

Neville has previously been highly critical of United's recruitment, particularly their predilection for high-priced stars perhaps past their best.

He was more impressed by their business this summer, with Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James injecting a degree of excitement into a squad increasingly built around a young core.

But Neville believes the club are still a long way from contending.

"I've been so critical of the recruitment in recent years. They've got to stop that. It looks like they've gone back to a strategy of signing young," he continued.

"United's average age has gone down to 24, there are eight academy players in the squad. It's a step backward but it's one to go forward.

"[Radamel] Falcao, [Angel] Di Maria, [Bastian] Schweinsteiger and [Alexis] Sanchez. They've spent and wasted tens and hundreds of millions of pounds on these players. They've got to stop that.

"United are basically going to have to have three or four good transfer windows."