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Gary Neville does not believe any Liverpool or Manchester United outfield players would make it into the current Barcelona and Real Madrid teams.
Sky Sports expert Neville, speaking in his column for the Telegraph, fears the English game is in decline, with poor recruitment and a lack of toughness partially to blame.
Sunday sees old rivals Liverpool and Manchester United meet in the Premier League, but Neville expects the technical and tactical aspects of the game between Barcelona and Real Madrid later the same day to be far superior.
He wrote: "Setting out the four starting XIs, you would be hard pushed to get one outfield player from the Liverpool-Man Utd game into the Barcelona-Real Madrid match that evening.
"Which is a sad indictment.
"When you tot up the money invested by Liverpool and Manchester United, spending power is not the chief cause of the Premier League’s slide in Europe, even if the Real Madrid and Barcelona attacking trios are so superior - Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale on one hand, and Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar on the other.
"I came out of the Barcelona-Manchester City game thinking that Premier League clubs can’t go on like this. At the airport, City fans asked – “Were we that bad, or were Barcelona that good?” The answer was: “both.”
"City are a good side. They have won two of the last three Premier League titles. Yet, when we line up our clubs in a discussion about top-class football, we are way below the peak.
"Liverpool v Man Utd will be full of entertainment, the fans will be up for it, the atmosphere will be great, it will capture our imagination. Relate it to the Clasico later in the day, though, and it will come a distant second, in terms of the technical and tactical aspects.
"Is this cyclical or a pattern? I hope it’s only a phase."
SkySports
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