"I saw Rafael [make his first-team debut] in the friendly against Peterborough and I didn't particularly like what I saw," Neville told the Sunday Times. "On a serious note, he has absolutely fantastic potential. His level of fitness and skill: it's the way the game is going now. Us old, solid right-backs don't seem to be the way forward, it's going in the other direction.

"Cafu and Roberto Carlos did it over the years, there's Evra now and I watch Rafael and his brother. English full-backs have got to take a lead from players like them. Five or six years ago I changed my game by making a conscious decision to go forward more and get more involved in attacks. We've got to become more European in our thinking.

"There's always a case for keeping your back four as a unit, especially in English football, but modern full-backs are becoming more like wide players, with the midfielders there to cover. It's the wide players in a team who give it an extra dimension, and that's not just your wingers but your full-backs.

"I can give Rafael and his brother advice, but they can also teach me. They're brilliantly talented and I watch how these lads play and the way the modern game is developing and that can hopefully develop my game."