‘Crazy play’ - Paul Scholes slams game-changing decisions of Man Utd defenders v Copenhagen

Paul Scholes has criticised what he considered to be the ‘crazy play’ from Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane that resulted in Manchester United losing to Copenhagen on Wednesday night.

The enthralling Champions League match was decided by an 87th-minute strike from Roony Bardghji, which gave the hosts a 4-3 win at the Parken Stadium. Ten-man United had led 2-0 in the early stages and were 3-2 up heading into the last 10 minutes, but they surrendered their winning position in the latter stages due to some weak defending.

Bardghji’s goal came from an ill-advised pass from Maguire to Varane, with the Frenchman sloppily handing possession to the opposition in United’s final third. Twenty-three seconds later and the ball flew past Andre Onana and into the back of the net, and Scholes was shocked by the poor decision making from United’s experienced centre-back.

“Crazy play. Your two most experienced players playing it across the back,” the former midfielder said on TNT Sports. “That pass to Varane is ridiculous. Now Varane has to deal with it, he has to launch that up the pitch.

“These are two experienced players, they’ve just conceded a goal, you can’t concede again. Get the ball up the pitch and get up the pitch and just defend for your lives.

“Even [Alejandro] Garnacho at the edge of the box, do everything you can, sprint back. You might be there for that knock down for the second ball,” he added. “But there’s so much space and [Diogo] Dalot is doing nothing, he needs to be against him [Bardghji].

The 4-3 defeat means United are bottom of their Champions League group after four games and will have to get results away to Galatasaray and at Old Trafford against Bayern Munich if they have any hope of progressing to the last-16.