Neville: European dream is over if we don't improve

Phil Neville has warned his Manchester United team-mates that they they face an embarrassingly early exit from the Champions League if they don’t buck their ideas up.

United will jet off for Portugal tomorrow for Wednesday’s knock-out phase first leg encounter with Porto knowing their hopes of retaining the Barclaycard Premiership title are hanging by the thinnest of threads following the disappointing 1-1 home draw with Leeds.

The result has left the Old Trafford outfit seven points adrift of odds-on title favourites Arsenal and facing the prospect of having to win all their remaining games to stand any chance of keeping their crown.

Yet most seasoned Red Devils observers will acknowledge the below-par performance was in keeping with the vast majority of the campaign, the only difference being the eventual outcome as United failed to grind out a victory as they have done so often previously.

It is a situation Neville knows must change, especially now their European dream is at stake.

Porto may not be the toughest obstacle but they are the UEFA Cup holders and unbeaten in the Portuguese League and unless standards rise, Neville is fearing the worst.

“The manager told us before the game he didn’t want us staggering into the Champions League but that is what we have done,” said the England international.

“We need to start playing winning football again, even if it means doing it the ugly way.

“Wednesday’s game is a massive one for us now and hopefully it will bring out the best in us as it has done in the past. But if we play anything like we have done in the last couple of weeks we will be out of the competition.”

From a position of strength at the turn of the year, United have slumped dramatically, taking just eight points from their last six league games at a time of the season which traditionally sees them hitting cruise control.

Although they largely managed to keep a lid on the defensive problems that have been cited as a major reason for their sudden demise, Sir Alex Ferguson is facing a bleak month.

The appeal into Rio Ferdinand’s eight-month ban for a missed drugs test will probably not be heard for another three weeks, while the caution Gary Neville picked up for a late second-half challenge on James Milner adds a single game suspension to the three he incurred for headbutting Steve McManaman seven days earlier.

If that was not bad enough, the extent of the knee and ankle twists Mikael Silvestre suffered in his first-half collision with Leeds goalscorer Alan Smith could rule him out for a significant period as well.

That would force Ferguson to keep faith with a rocky central defensive pairing of John O’Shea and Wes Brown unless he took the bold step of moving skipper Roy Keane into a position he dislikes.

In the end, it might all be irrelevant anyway as United now need Arsenal to lose at least twice – including the Highbury encounter between the pair at the end of next month – which seems unlikely for a team that has gone almost two-thirds of the campaign without suffering one defeat.

“We are not giving up but we have given ourselves a mountain to climb,” said Neville.

“Leeds United are at the bottom of the table and we have aspirations at the top, so if we can’t win games like that we are not going to win the Premiership.

“Now we have to hope Arsenal slip up, which is something they don’t look like doing.

“There is talent in our squad but we are in other people’s hands now and that is not a good position to be in.”