Liverpool star picked out for Man Utd transfer as Gary Neville says 'we need'

Gary Neville has not been shy about voicing his opinions on Manchester United and now the former Red Devils captain has picked a Liverpool player he would sign for the Old Trafford side

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has picked Ryan Gravenberch as the Liverpool player he would want his old side to sign. Gravenberch joined the club in August 2023 for around £40million and was part of a midfield rebuild that also saw Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo signed.

Former Ajax youngster Gravenberch became a mainstay of the team under Arne Slot. In Jurgen Klopp's final season in charge, the midfielder made just 12 Premier League starts before a switch to a No.6 role in the engine room under Slot saw him flourish in the Reds' 2024/25 Premier League-winning campaign, featuring in 37 of Liverpool's 38 games.

The Reds' bitter rivals, United, have been looking to strengthen their midfield all summer and confirmed the £50m signing of Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos from Chelsea on Monday. The club are also set to sign Aston Villa's Youri Tielemans after activating the Belgian's £35m release clause.

And former Red Devils captain Neville has told the Overlap podcast that he would like to see Gravenberch at Old Trafford if he had to choose a player from Andoni Iraola's team.

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He said: "It's harder because [Florian] Wirtz, Isak aren't jumping out to me, [Hugo] Ekitike yeah, [Dominik] Szoboszlai maybe, [Alexis] Mac Allister hmm. I'd go Gravenberch.

"If you said to me now, I'd take Gravenberch because I think he's the best of the three midfielders and we need a midfielder desperately.

"The forwards are good but I wouldn't swap them over [Bryan] Mbeumo, [Matheus] Cunha, Bruno [Fernandes], Amad, I'd don't think I'd be jumping to take any of them. I think they've got potential to do brilliant things but they've not proved it yet."

Michael Owen was the last player to play for both Liverpool and United. The striker went on to win the Premier League title and League Cup during his time in Manchester.

Neville was also asked which manager in world football he would most like to have played under. The 51-year-old said: "[Jurgen] Klopp. I’ve said this before, I think Klopp with his football, his personality, I just love it. Mad.

"For five or six years you couldn’t help but admire the team that I dislike the most, the team that I don’t want to win. Every time you went and watched Liverpool it was a proper game of football, you knew they weren’t holding back and you knew they were going to go for it.

"You knew they were electric in attack, speed, particularly in that two or three-year period when they had [Sadio] Mane, [Mohamed] Salah and [Roberto] Firmino at their peak. That was a proper front three, that. The runs of Salah and Mane and the goals, then you’ve got Firmino just dropping in and pulling centre-backs out and then they go in behind. It was devastating, honestly, it really was.

"It was an aggressive backline. If you think of the three, the two full-backs and [Virgil] van Dijk, [Andy] Robertson at his peak, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Van Dijk and then you had [Joel] Matip or someone… but they were three brilliant defenders and Alisson was the best goalkeeper in the world. So for me, the style of football, the personality of Klopp, yeah, I’d say Klopp."

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