Ronaldo and Fernandes problem identified in worrying Man Utd assessment

Gary Neville was left shocked by Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes ' performances for Manchester United on Monday night.

The Sky Sports pundit criticised their body language and insisted that they could have a detrimental effect on the youngsters at the club.

It comes after a miserable 1-1 draw against Newcastle at St James Park - that probably should have been a lot worse for the Red Devils.

United were poor throughout the contest and thoroughly deserved to go behind at the break when Allan Saint-Maximin gave the hosts the lead.

Ralf Rangnick can thank Edinson Cavani for getting his side anything out of the match after equalising 20 minutes from full time.

David de Gea kept United in the match with a string of fantastic saves but it was another performance where they looked less than convincing.

And encapsulating that were the poor displays put on show by Ronaldo and Fernandes, who looked lost throughout.

Both stars were guilty of losing possession on an alarming basis while Neville was left furious by their body language.

Speaking on Monday Night Football, he said: "We talk about body language.

"We talked about it earlier in the season when Ronaldo ran off at the end of the Everton game. He's run off again tonight. He ran off at Watford, when everyone knew the manager was going to get the sack. And at Norwich.

"And there's Fernandes' whinging too. They're the two senior players. It's devastating for younger players when the two best players are looking at every other player like they're not good enough.

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"Cavani takes that away. I don't think Cavani wilts in the presence of Ronaldo or Fernandes, I think he stands up to them and helps other young players on the pitch. He needs to be on the pitch."

At full-time, St James Park was rocking and the fans gave the Newcastle players a raucous reception whereas only a handful of United players went over to the away supporters.

Ronaldo and Fernandes were not among them, instead choosing to go straight down the tunnel - which particularly incensed Neville as well.

He added: "I don't care how you've played, You need to go over and clap the fans at the end of the game.

"Get over to them, particularly when you're the best player in the world, and one of the greatest of all time."

Meanwhile, Rangnick disagreed with Neville and insisted the performance was nothing to do with body language.

"Today we didn't control the game apart from a few moments," the German said. "It's all about energy, physicality and who wins the second balls. In all those areas we weren't at our best.

"You have to be ready and able to win those direct duels and this was not that often the case. When we were in possession we had too many giveaways and even with the goal, that doesn't make things easy.

"Today was not a question of body language, it was a question of body physicality.

"If you want to be competitive here you have to get physical and this was not the case in many parts of the game.

"Our biggest problem was the mistakes we made. Even when we scored the equaliser we were not really controlling the game and taking the right decisions.

"I didn't like the performance at all."