Gary Neville casts verdict on Tottenham's Timo Werner signing after debut vs Man Utd

Gary Neville hopes to see a more 'mature' Timo Werner after Tottenham's January signing made his debut in Sunday's 2-2 draw at Manchester United.

The 27-year-old, who signed on loan from German side RB Leipzig on Wednesday, was thrown straight into the starting line-up at Old Trafford amid a number of attacking absences for Tottenham. Ange Postecoglou's side twice went behind but goals from Richarlison and Rodrigo Bentancur earned them a decent away point.

Werner got straight off the mark with an assist for Bentancur, dinking a lovely ball into the midfielder's path less than a minute into the second-half to make it 2-2. But the German also snatched at a couple of scoring opportunities and Neville hopes to see a more finished product this time round.

"I can see the sense behind the signing because he does a lot of the things you’d like," Neville told Sky Sports of Werner after full-time. "He's quick, he makes runs, he gets into positions where he can score goals. What you're hoping for is that this time you get a more mature, experienced player. 

"These moments where they were decent chances, which were decent chances and I'd expect that if he'd been away learning his trade a bit more - there was big pressure last time coming to Chelsea. What he'll do is he'll get a lot of opportunities in that area off the left hand side."

Tottenham might be frustrated not to have left Old Trafford with all three points, given the level of domination in the second-half, but Postecoglou's side deserve credit for putting on such a performance with so many absences.

Dejan Kulusevski was a late absence, having fallen ill, and the Swede joined James Maddison, Heung-Min Son, Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr in being unavailable.

“I thought they were very good,” Neville added of Tottenham. “The five best players are missing - if you'd have had them in the team, they'd have won the game. The style of play still comes through with players missing. 

“They were the better team, dominated the whole second-half, they had difficult moments against [Marcus] Rashford and [Rasmus] Hojlund on the counter-attack at times but in terms of being superior they were by far.”