Gary Neville admits his prediction for Manchester United’s trip to Elland Road to face Leeds on Sunday may be based on “blind faith”.

Leeds are the favourites to beat the Red Devils on their own patch for the first time in Premier League history as Man Utd boss Michael Carrick looks to pick up the pieces after another turbulent week.

The 1-1 draw with Tottenham last weekend means they currently sit 14th in the table having won just one of their opening six games.

They then lost 2-0 to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, but it was Lisandro Martinez’s comments after the defeat that have grabbed the headlines since.

The Argentinian centre-back hit out at the club and technical director Jason Wilcox in particular for failing to build a squad capable of battling on multiple fronts.

Carrick will be desperate for a win at Elland Road as the pressure on his position at the club mounts, and Neville believes his side will pull through and claim a vital three points.

“I actually think Manchester United are going to win, maybe that’s just blind faith,” Neville said on Sky Sports. “I think what Martinez did during the week, I think they will have had a serious team meeting.

“I think they would have said ‘this is it now’, it should have happened last weekend against Tottenham when they came back off the international break.

“That was when we should have seen a response after the Fulham game but we didn’t.

“I think we may see the response today after what has happened in midweek and if they play like they did in midweek against Atletico Madrid, they probably will win here [Elland Road] today because that was a decent performance and Atletico Madrid, I think, are a better team that Leeds.”

Calculated comments

Former Leeds striker Lucy Ward believes Martinez’s midweek comments were calculated and they were made with “protecting Carrick” in mind.

“I think this wasn’t spur of the moment from Martinez, this was planned, this was a collective thing amongst the senior pros,” Ward told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“The core of it I think was he didn’t like to see Heaven playing left-back because he’s a kid and he’s basically been hung out to dry – not by Carrick but because there wasn’t a proper left-back there because of injuries and they haven’t recruited a left-back when every Man United fan, every fan, could see they needed a left-back.

“I do think in some respect they were protecting Carrick as well and Martinez never meant for anyone to go for Carrick. This was all about above – why have you not helped out, why have we got a kid playing left-back? This is not helping the manager, this is not helping us.

“I think this was a collective response, everybody knew what was going to happen, apart from maybe the young players.”