Gary Neville has blamed Manchester United's forwards for the club's Champions League defeat against Besiktas, criticising the team for not taking their chances. The defender believes his side did not create enough opportunities to score, and failed to make use of those they did forge.

"We didn't convert our chances, the goalkeeper made a few good saves, some of our decision-making was poor, the last pass often wasn't good, some of the crossing wasn't up to scratch," he said. "The play in the last third wasn't decisive enough and we didn't take our chances."

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Besiktas's surprise 1-0 win came courtesy of a deflected Rodrigo Tello strike, but Neville believes United should have managed to carve out an equaliser.

"Usually we'd expect to score a goal in 96 minutes of football at Old Trafford but we didn't do that," he said. "In general, I thought we were good – [Federico] Macheda and [Danny] Welbeck did very well with their link-up play in the first half and we should have created more from that. We just didn't do enough to score that goal."

With qualification for the next round of the Champions League assured, Manchester United were hoping to secure top spot in their group. The defeat against Besiktas, though, has hampered their cause.

"We need to go to Wolfsburg and get a result," Neville said of their tie on 8 December. "Is top spot important? It depends. You can finish second and get a favourable draw or you can finish top and get a disastrous draw – that's what can happen in the Champions League, and this year the competition seems particularly topsy-turvy.

"I think it will be difficult whoever we get drawn against in the next round, but for our pride and the way we like to do things we want to finish top."