Gary Neville has claimed the Manchester United squad are causing themselves ’emotional damage’ with their post-match walks of honour.

United staged another incredible fightback to snatch a 4-4 draw with Aston Villa at Old Trafford after trailing by two goals heading into injury-time.

But it wasn’t enough to spare the club from the humiliation of being in the relegation zone for the next two weeks – the longest United have spent there since 1986.

After the full-time whistle, the United players conducted a post-match walk of honour as the fans chanted Michael Carrick’s name in a defiant show of support for their beleaguered boss, a move which Neville suggested could be worsening the situation.

‘You have got to admire their persistence, they kept going,’ Neville said on NBC Sports. ‘The defensive errors were shocking and we’ll discuss that shortly. But this lap around the pitch…

‘I played for Manchester United 602 times and I always appreciated the fans at the end of the game, but this pattern of them walking around the pitch after defeats by Bournemouth and a 4-4 at home against Aston Villa, it’s almost painful to watch. They’re almost causing themselves emotional damage.

‘This pattern of (the United squad) walking around the pitch after defeats by Bournemouth and a 4-4 at home against Aston Villa, it’s almost painful to watch,’ Neville said on NBC Sports

He added: ‘Michael will be proud of them and the fans are singing his name because they love him but this is a really sorry situation’ (Source: YouTube/NBC Sports)

‘This just can’t go on, can it? It’s absolutely desperate. Michael will be proud of them and the fans are singing his name because they love him but this is a really sorry situation.’

Carrick was involved in a spiky back-and-forth with Sky Sports’ Patrick Davison when it was suggested to him that he could step down:

Davison: ‘What do you expect to happen over the next few weeks? If you thought walking away was the best thing, you’d probably do it.’

Carrick: ‘It’s not going to happen, no.’

Davison: ‘What do you expect to happen? Clearly there’s going to be conversation?’

Carrick: ‘Is there?’

Davison: ‘You would assume so, right?’

Carrick: ‘Would you?’

Davison: ‘What do you think, Michael?’

Carrick: ‘You’re telling me what you think, aren’t you?’

Davison: ‘I’m asking you what you think? What do you expect to happen?’

Carrick: ‘We understand the situation; we haven’t won enough games. But I expect to move forward and keep working on things we’ve been working on, showing a lot of the good in the game today, tighten up on a few mistakes and win football matches.’

Then, speaking in his post-match press conference, Carrick expressed confidence his side could still turn things around this season.

‘One hundred per cent,’ he said. ‘I think there’s more than enough. Goals change games and we’ve got to deal with it and it’s something we have to improve on drastically. But there’s more than enough, we’re just making it too difficult for ourselves at the moment in certain times…

Carrick insisted ‘it’s not going to happen’ when it was put to him that he could walk away if he thought that would be the ‘best thing’ for the club 

‘I’m quite clear with what direction the club needs to go in. We’ve just got to win games.’

Amid a wave of fan protests expressing their discontent towards INEOS and the Glazer family on Sunday, Neville has suggested that the club’s hierarchy ‘don’t have a clue what to do’ on Carrick.

He added: ‘You can keep changing the manager and thinking that’s going to be the answer. But this has been proven now over eight managers in 12 years – that’s not the answer.

‘Michael could leave, Michael might stay, we don’t know. The ownership don’t have a clue what to do.

‘It’s rinse and repeat. (Ruben) Amorim, (Erik) Ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Carrick, Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, David Moyes, Ralf Rangnick – some of them are world-class managers who have had success; there are a lot of promising young managers there, ex-players who know the club as well.

‘None of it has worked because if you recruit badly, if you’ve got a poor performance department, a poor recruitment department, you’ve not got leadership that is strong right through the spine of the football club, you will fail.

‘Every organisation in the world will fail if you’ve not got an aligned leadership from top to bottom – your board and your ownership right the way through to the person who is stood on the pitch trying to play football.

‘There are real issues within that football club; you’ve got people doing those jobs who have never done those jobs before in senior positions.’