Making pre-season predictions is often a thankless task, and Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have found this out with some of their tips for the 2021-22 season.
The Monday Night Football pundits were asked in August to give their verdict on the season ahead. There were straightforward categories, including predictions for the title winner and top four, as well as tips for overachievers and underachievers, as well as some player-specific ones.
As we gear up for a tense title race, top-four battle and relegation fight, some of the predictions are very much alive. Others, though, have been far less successful.
One of the areas in which the pair were in agreement was the title race. At the time of the predictions, the summer transfer window was still open and Manchester City were still being linked with attacking reinforcements, though this wasn’t the only factor behind Neville and Carragher both tipping the reigning champions to defend their title.
“Liverpool are the one team who have broken [City’s] spell up, once in the last four years,” Carragher said. “It will take a lot to do that again. It will be really difficult to stop City if [Harry] Kane went there.
Neville was of the same opinion. “You’ve still got to go with Man City at this point because of what they’ve done over the last few years and Chelsea have still got to prove themselves, Manchester United have got to prove themselves, Liverpool have got to prove they can get back to that level where they were before,” he said.
Indeed, former Man Utd captain Neville went even further, tipping his old club to finish above Carragher’s former employers Liverpool. His fellow pundit disagreed, though, pointing to how close the teams were last season despite the Reds’ defensive injury crisis.
“I think Liverpool have a better team, a better manager, they only finished six points behind United last season despite having no centre backs for most of the season,” Carragher said. “And I think maybe Liverpool are going under the radar and some people – myself included – are forgetting how good they were for a couple of years.”
One area where the duo got things wrong concerned their picks for overperforming clubs. Carragher opted for Brighton, who started the season strongly but have since seen their form tail off with just one win in their last 11 games.
Neville’s tip have been faring even more poorly, though. And not only did he anticipate Everton overperforming this season, but he identified Arsenal as his underperformers.
Highlighting Rafa Benitez as the secret of Everton’s potential success, Neville said: “I think he’ll make them have their best season for a long time. I think they could do what West Ham and Leicester did last season and get up to that fifth, sixth position.”
Unfortunately for Neville, and indeed for Benitez, the Spaniard was sacked in January with Everton down in 16th. Things have got worse, if anything, under his successor Frank Lampard, with relegation now a real possibility.
“I think they’ve got a good young coach but at the moment I worry about the make-up of the squad, it doesn’t feel right,” was Nevilles verdict on Arsenal “That’s not because they’ve lost their first two games.
“They’ve got a mixture of young players that you can imagine are committed, desperate to do well, have got talent, and then I think about the guidance I got as a young player at Manchester United, from unbelievable senior players in that dressing room, and I don’t think they’ve got the right direction around them in that structure.”
Mikel Arteta has turned things around in north London, though, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked by United after failing to do the same at Old Trafford. And the Gunners also owe some of that success to Carragher’s tip for the young player to watch this season.
He opted for Emile Smith Rowe, saying “I think he has been outstanding, I loved watching him last season. Even though Arsenal have made a poor start to the season, he was arguably the best player on the pitch for Friday Night Football.
“It is the way he moves with the ball. Very rarely do I see even the top players be able to receive the ball on the back foot on both sides, he can go with his left or his right. I am a huge fan of his.”
United’s struggles, meanwhile, have coincided with a difficult time for Neville and Carragher’s ones to watch. Both chose summer signings, with Carragher backing Jadon Sancho to deliver and Neville name-checking Raphael Varane.
“I think he could be a superstar, I really do,” Carragher said of Sancho. “You look at his numbers in German football. Gary has mentioned that they need this player on the right side, at times I think he is as good on the left if you look at his stats.”
While Varane’s struggles have largely been injury-related, Sancho has found things tough for a variety of reasons. There have been flashes from the England international, but his absence from the last international squad speaks for itself.
