Gary Neville moans 'this has got to stop' live on Sky Sports during Man Utd vs Man City

Gary Neville made his frustrations very clear during against . The failed to inspire any notion of passion or quality during the opening period at Old Trafford to provoke ex-United captain Neville into bemoaning the lack of adventure on display.

A goalless opening 45 minutes saw and left its audience almost happy to see the halfway mark. The drab offering did little to evoke any optimism for sides who have woefully underperformed this term.

Ruben Amorim saw an early victory over at the Etihad Stadium, and his side were content to operate on the counter on Sunday afternoon. The visitors were unable to muster much attacking play of their own to threaten the Red Devils however.

Neville could not hold back from the gantry as his frustrations burst out, such was the risk-averse approach of both teams. The pundit made it clear that neither side had done enough.

"It's like we've got to a point in football where teams are frightened to death to give the ball away, make a mistake, take a risk" he said on commentary. "They're all so obsessed with shape... nothing off-the-cuff is happening in lots of games.

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"This has got to stop. The excitement and beauty of the is the sort of thrust and energy and excitement, and doing things a little bit differently. [This] 45 minutes is a non-entity, it's not good enough from either team."

Neville was far from alone in lamenting what he had seen at Old Trafford. In the studio and Micah Richards also vented their frustrations.

"There's a real lack of quality," said Keane, "No atmosphere. City have dominated possession, United have sat in. But it's a derby game, there's no energy in the stadium. This is a friendly derby!"

"It's laboured, it's flat," added ex-Manchester City defender Richards. "There's no energy. There's no anything!"

Even those without skin in the game had grown frustrated with the Premier League match. Former midfielder Leon Osman noted it had been a tough half to endure.

"It has not been easy viewing," he said. "After that first minute there wasn't really a cheer or a tackle or anything for anyone to get up and interested by.

"It has not had the quality that we expect nor the derby intensity that you get with local rivalries. It will be interesting what we get in the second half."

Neither side was able to respond to the criticism as proceedings ended at a stalemate to produce one of the more forgettable Manchester derbies.

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