The 33-year-old made his first senior start since March 2007 at
the weekend when United defeated Portsmouth on penalties to claim
victory in the Community Shield.
The score may have been 0-0 after 90 minutes but in truth the Red
Devils dominated the FA Cup-holders as Carlos Tevez led a
forward-line that ran rings around the Pompey defence.
The European champions' performance at Wembley highlighted the
fluid style of play Sir Alex Ferguson strove for last season, which
involved four forwards constantly shifting position and attacking
the opposition goal from every angle.
Such a system is quite a departure from the more rigid yet brutally
effective 4-4-2 that characterised United's glory days of the
1990s, which saw Ryan Giggs and David Beckham patrol the flanks
while the likes of Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke terrorised
goalkeepers across the country.
This new approach is essentially foreign to Neville, who made his
debut with the club in 1992, but he is nonetheless excited by the
direction United's football is heading.
"The way our current players inter-change is definitely different
to the United teams I've played for in the past," he said in
The Guardian.
"The front of three or four seem able to play in every position
across the front-line and it's difficult for opponents and
defenders of the other teams to know who they're going to be
playing against from minute to minute, let alone match to
match.
"In that sense this is probably the most inventive side I've played
in."
However, that is not to say the 10-time Premier League-winners have
abandoned defensive discipline to focus purely on playing sexy
footy.
For a feature of United's strikers - most notably Tevez and Rooney
- is their work ethic, and Neville readily acknowledged their
efforts when forced onto the back foot.
"It is not just the way they attack that makes them so special,"
added the skipper. "Carlos, Nani, Giggsy and Wayne Rooney for that
matter are also fantastic defenders in their own right. They tackle
well and are all willing to win the ball back."