Premiership: Varied team selection costing us - Neville

Phil Neville admits Alex Ferguson’s constant chopping and changing in defence is a factor behind Manchester United’s Premiership collapse.

Ferguson fielded his 12th different centre-half pairing this season when he handed rookie John O’Shea his full Premiership debut alongside Gary Neville against West Ham on Saturday.

In total Ferguson has used 10 different players at the heart of his defence in an attempt to shore up his leaky backline.

By comparison Premiership leaders Liverpool have paired Sami Hyypia and Stephane Henchoz together in 12 of their 14 league games.

In those other two games, Stephen Wright partnered Henchoz because Hyypia was injured.

Neville tried to defend Ferguson, claiming some of the changes have been forced on him because of injury, but he admitted the lack of a settled back four had contributed to their slump.

‘‘I think it probably is a factor,’’ said the England international.

‘‘We’ve had injuries to Ronny Johnsen, David May and Wes Brown that have meant we’ve not had the usual continuity. Denis Irwin has been out for a couple of weeks too.

‘‘It’s not been the case that the manager has changed the defence for the sake of it he’s been forced into it.’’

United go into tonight’s match against Derby at Old Trafford ninth in the table, 11 points behind Premiership leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand.

That is quite a contrast to the corresponding fixture seven months ago when United were already champions and were presented with the Premier League trophy after the game.

Many reasons have been put forward to explain why United have lost six times in the Premiership and conceded 27 goals in only 15 games.

Neville has his own theory and he puts it down to a loss of form and nothing else.

The defender is irritated by all the talk about formations and he said: ‘‘Everyone outside the club is making a big deal of it, but we know what the problem is and we’re working hard on the training ground to rectify it.

‘‘We’ve got to work hard to get our form back and that’s all it is, a loss of form.

‘‘There’s a lot of talk of systems and formations and that’s all rubbish.

‘‘It’s just that the team aren’t playing as well as they can.’’

David Beckham, newly-crowned as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Juan Sebastian Veron are expected to return to the United line-up after being rested on Saturday.