Gary Neville and Roy Keane highlight major Man United concern just hours before Liverpool clash

Manchester United legends Gary Neville and Roy Keane have been left worried by Erik ten Hag's change of tactics in the opening weeks of the season. Their former side prepares to face Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.

While Arne Slot has experienced a perfect start to life at Liverpool, his Dutch counterpart at rivals United is now entering his third year in charge of the club. While he has a cup success to boast of in each campaign he has overseen, Ten Hag witnessed his side take a step backwards in the Premier League last term.

The main reason they have been unable to consistently build has been the tinkering of a playing system, as opposed to possessing a definitive style. The opening two fixtures of the season have seen them line up without a specialist striker from kick-off.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville commented: "I think at the moment, is this the way he's going to play? He's without a centre-forward, I think it's hard to play without a centre-forward, full-stop.

"[Joshua Zirkzee] hasn't played a lot of football over the summer so he's bringing him on after 45, 60 minutes. It'll be interesting to see if Zirkzee plays today."

With team news announced 75 minutes before kick-off at 4pm, Ten Hag has now locked in a major change Neville can at least take comfort from - centre forward summer signing Zirkzee makes his first start for the hosts.

The former full-back continued: "I think what they'll want to see here, you talk about the CEOs [that came] from Man City, Dan Ashworth, they'll want to see a style of play, a pattern established. That's not what we've seen in the first two years from Erik ten Hag.

"We've seen even in these first couple of games, changing the back four during the game, changing the system during the game, bringing the centre-forward on during the game. There's three things he's done in the first two matches that have corrected his initial team shape. I think we've got to get away from that so there's a stability to it."

Sharing similar fears, his former teammate Keane added: "I know there's only a couple of games gone but I'm still worried about the problems from last year, missing chances, not scoring enough goals, and I still think from the couple of games including the community shield, they look very very open."

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