Gary Neville singled out teenage midfielder Hannibal Mejbri for his spirit and fight in Manchester United’s humiliating 4-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield.
The 19-year-old was an 84th-minute substitute but soon made his presence felt, picking up a yellow card and would perhaps have incurred further punishment were the result not beyond all doubt.
It was only Mejbri’s first senior appearance of the season but Neville stated that the Tunisia international was the only United player to emerge with credit in an otherwise listless display away at their arch-rivals.
“It takes a young kid to come on and show the rest of them how to sprint for the ball and put a challenge in,” said Neville during commentary.
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“I’m actually proud of him! Maybe he doesn’t like the idea of Liverpool players passing it round him. I wish the rest of them were the same.”
Mejbri made his United debut on the final day of the 2020-21 season, as a late substitute for Juan Mata as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team beat Wolves 2-1 at Old Trafford, but Tuesday’s cameo was his first of this term.
But with Paul Pogba the latest casualty to join Fred and Scott McTominay on United’s treatment table, more first-team action could follow for Mejbri. That would certainly appease a growing number of United fans who are eager to see more of the youngster before a forgettable campaign runs its course.
“You find yourself being slightly unprofessional because he’s come on and, to be fair, he’s started to top a couple of them,” said Neville post-match.
“If you’re having the p*** taken out of you on the football pitch and Thiago’s going round there rolling his foot on the ball, flipping it round the corner and laughing at you on the bench, you’ve come on and basically you have to throw a few challenges out.
“That was Whiteside. That was what Norman Whiteside used to do when Bryan Robson came in and they knew they were playing against better players and a better team, they’d come and give it some.
“I watched a team through the 80s who didn’t win the league, so this isn’t coming from utopia by the way in my childhood. I came through a poor childhood because this club (Liverpool) were winning everything.
“But I tell you what those players out on the pitch, whether it was Joe Jordan, or Martin Buchan, or Mike Duxbury, they never did that, they never ever did that.
“That kid came on at the end and he showed something, and he reminded me of Nobby Stiles and of Eric Harrison, and the basic principles of being a football player: compete, win your duels, fight for every ball and there was only one kid came on and demonstrated that he had the heart and the soul to play for Manchester United football club tonight.”
Neville was referring to a United team which looked thoroughly unmotivated to seize the chance to move joint-fourth with a victory at Anfield.
They mustered just two shots, with one on target at an expected goals rate of 0.09.
Mejbri was the first United player to be cautioned, despite only figuring in the closing stages, which suggests United were desperately lacking the character which Neville identified in Mejbri.
Who is Hannibal Mejbri?
Mejbri signed for United in August 2019, arriving from Monaco for a fee which could rise to £9 million.
Born to Tunisian parents but raised in suburban Paris, Mejbri appeared for France at youth level before making his Tunisia debut in June 2021, aged just 18.
Prior to his arrival at Monaco, Mejbri spent time at the prestigious Clairefontaine academy, whose alumni include Nicholas Anelka, Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappe.
A former Arsenal trialist, Mejbri enjoyed a hugely impressive first season for United’s under-23s, registering five goals and ten assists across all competitions.
But much like Ralf Rangnick’s side, Hannibal has struggled to kick on this season. A modest tally of one goal and three assists is explained in part by a number of international call-ups.
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Mejbri played in the Fifa Arab Cup final in December and made two appearances at the Africa Cup of Nations as Tunisia reached the quarter-final stage.
He may well line up against the man he could replace in United’s midfield, Paul Pogba, at the Qatar World Cup, with Tunisia drawn in Group D alongside France, Denmark and the winners of the Australia/UAE/Peru play-off.
Rangnick could turn to Mejbri for their final five league games as reward for his exuberant cameo. But United’s youth coaches have long been aware of his grit and determination, which Neville praised on Tuesday night.
United’s former head of first-team development, Nicky Butt, said in June 2020: “The way he plays his football is 100mph, he’s non-stop running up and down.
“Hannibal’s a leader.”
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