Ruud van Nistelrooy immediately told to make major Man Utd change by Gary Neville

Gary Neville believes could set up with a back three due to their defensive struggles.

The club's former striker has been put in charge on an interim basis following the . Van Nistelrooy was hired in the summer to aid Ten Hag so had been sat alongside him throughout the season, but has now been tasked with improving performances.

Van Nistelrooy inherits a team that . One of those has been in defence with Ten Hag unable to find combinations that work. Matthijs de Ligt hasn't had the desired impact and Neville believes a back three could give them more solidity.

He also pointed to the club's full-backs - the likes of Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui - being far better going forward than they are defensively. As a result a back three with the use of wing-backs could be a quick solution for the interim boss.

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Neville told : “He can set the team up differently. That’s something that could happen, he could make the make-up of the team slightly different. But he’s been on the bench with Erik ten Hag so I’d be amazed if there was something drastic in the next few games. I believe that ultimately there needs to be quite a lot of work done with those players because at this moment in time they are desperately struggling.

“Ruud van Nistelrooy will do his very best. I have thought for a number of months that, looking at the players that United have that they’d maybe be better suited to going three at the back. Just purely because of the lack of a centre-back pairing and the full-backs look better going forward than they do defensively, so maybe that could happen.

“Maybe that might give them a bit more comfort because it would give them an extra body at the back and players would be in a system where they got more support.

“That’s something I’ve thought for a few months, whether that’s the right way to go I’m not sure. We’ll see against on Wednesday if he agreed with what Erik was doing because he’ll pick a different team if he didn’t.”

The lack of playing identity was long held against Ten Hag, who was known for the style he implemented whilst at Ajax. United were unable to settle on a way of playing with pundits constantly asking what the Dutchman was trying to do with his team.

So far this season only , who sit in the bottom three, have scored fewer goals that the Manchester outfit. Van Nistelrooy was bought in to aid the attacking talent and will now get a chance to put his own thoughts across. This season there has been footage captured of Ten Hag and Van Nistelrooy appearing to disagree in the dugout.

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