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Gary Neville described Manchester United midfielders Paul Pogba and Ander Herrera's defending at Chelsea as 'embarrassing'.

Pogba's poor Premier League form continued at Stamford Bridge while Herrera failed to build on his man of the match performance at Anfield in the 4-0 drubbing on Sunday.

Neville said after the duo impressed against Leicester last month Pogba and Herrera's 'ultimate test' would come in the back-to-back games against Liverpool and Chelsea, and the former United captain was dismayed by their defending for N'Golo Kante's goal.

"I think that today they got a little bit shoddy in the second-half," Neville said on Sky Sports. "It was embarrassing from Pogba and Herrera. Kante just walked through them. They are the central midfield players.

"The first goal was just a joke, gifting a goal after 30 seconds."

United have signed seven central midfielders in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson after the Scot failed to sign one during his last six years in charge.

Daley Blind is now a defender, Angel di Maria left last summer, Bastian Schweinsteiger was excluded from Jose Mourinho's first-team squad and Morgan Schneiderlin could not make the squad again at Chelsea.

Neville is uncertain what United's best midfield axis is and reckons Mourinho will become more ruthless over the coming months.

"I think he’ll drive a bus through the club in the next six months because he won’t be accept defending like that," Neville added. "We’ve seen it before with Jose they’ll be gone.

"About three years ago there was a lot of talk about how Manchester United hadn’t signed a defensive midfielder for years. They’ve signed about £180m of midfield players, Fellaini, Herrera, Schneiderlin, Pogba, I don’t know what pair I can say are a good pair.

"[Michael] Carrick actually looks like he still gives the most balance. The other four, there doesn’t seem to be a pair between them."