Gary Neville: Former Manchester United captain praises Liverpool and Chelsea while being upset at Salford's season

Neville also speaks about his disappointment at Salford City's season ending while they still had an outside chance of making the play-offs, but says everyone is working hard already for next season.

Talking to Super 6, Neville gave his begrudging respect to Liverpool although, after so many years cleaning up Premier League titles for arch rivals Manchester United, he is hardly jumping for joy to see the trophy heading to Anfield.

Even so, he fully respects what Jurgen Klopp has done at Anfield.

“It was inevitable, they’ve been the best team all season, the standout team," Neville told Super 6. "They were great last season but City kept them at bay, just! And it’s been coming – they won the Champions League last year and got to the final the year before that.

“Jurgen Klopp has built a brilliant team over the last couple of years and they more than deserve to win the title. So from a professional point of view I don’t deny it – but from a personal point of view it’s awful!"

The difference between Liverpool's performance at Everton and then against Crystal Palace highlighted the drop-off that can come when Klopp is without some of his star men.

Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson missed the trip to Goodison Park, but their return prompted an impressive display against Crystal Palace which put them on the brink of glory before City's loss at Chelsea confirmed the title.

Although having a smaller squad does leave Liverpool open to injury problems, Neville says that having such a strong first eleven can also be a positive.

“Squad depth can be a strength if the manager and players are comfortable playing less games, but having a more focused squad like Jurgen Klopp’s got can be a big strength as well because it means you’ve got a first eleven.

“In some ways it gives you certainty when you’ve got a first eleven that’s so dominant and you can just change a few positions and a big squad can sometimes cause confusion. I actually saw some statistics that Leeds have used the fewest players in the Championship and they’re top, Liverpool have used the fewest players I think in the Premier League and they’re top.

“So there’s an element of consistency that can help if you have just a smaller group of real quality."

As for what's happening behind Liverpool, Man City and Leicester, Neville thinks that United may just have enough to grab fourth place ahead of Chelsea.

“I’ll say United, partly because it’s from my heart. Paul Pogba’s introduction against Spurs changed that game and demonstrated just what he is, (and) I do put Mason Greenwood in that category as well. When they face deep lying defences I think Greenwood is better than Daniel James.

“I think Greenwood’s getting to the stage now were it’s getting awkward for Ole to leave him out, I think he’s an outstanding player - him and Rashford with Martial or Oghalo should be the front three. With Pogba and Fernandes feeding them and Fred, McTominay or Matic behind, any one of them, then United look a pretty decent team."

Exciting Chelsea ones to watch next season

Chelsea are a team on the up seemingly like United, having seen talented youngsters like Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Reece James and Fikayo Tomori all coming through while their transfer ban was imposed.

Now Frank Lampard is able to add established European stars Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner to his squad with the possibility of Ben Chilwell and Kai Havertz to follow - and Neville says they'll be a team to watch next season.

"Chelsea are interesting in that the dynamics of the club have changed in the last 12 months, they're a far younger outfit but still with some experienced players.

"They've got Werner coming in, who was courted by a number of other clubs, and they look like they're building a young, aggressive, talented team, and it's exciting at Chelsea.

"We've seen better Chelsea teams, we've seen Champions League-winning teams we've seen multiple title-winning teams, but actually it's a really exciting time now if I was a Chelsea fan.

"Next year I don't think I'd put the pressure on too much but he certainly has to get closer, and that progression has to go from top four to top two or three so you can see the development of a team that's going to get closer.

"That's what happened with Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool - they'd not won a trophy for four years but you could see they were getting closer every single year, and that's what Frank needs to do.

"It's when you're regressing that the problems start. So it's a big year next year but if I were a Chelsea fan looking at those players there'd be some excitement there."

Salford not good enough

Neville, part-owner of Salford City of course, is not happy with his team finishing 11th and, even though they had an outside chance of the play-offs he says it was not good enough - and is already working on doing better next season.

“I’m not happy with how it ended for Salford – 11th place is by no stretch of the imagination good enough. We don’t ever refer to the fact that it was our first year back in the Football League and we stabilised in mid-table, it bores me to death; we basically invested heavily to go up this year.

“I still think we would have had an outside chance of making the play-offs the way we started to play just before lockdown, but with coronavirus it was the right thing to do for League Two clubs to end the season.

“Nearly every waking moment is spent on the phone talking about what we’re going to do next season – meeting players and speaking to players that have been released and out of contract so we’ve a busy time ahead of us and we have to get this right. That’s my main focus now.”

Gary Neville was speaking courtesy of Super 6 - Click here to play Super 6

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