‘Disrespect’, ‘lazy’, ‘waste of time’ - Every word from Paul Scholes’ scathing Man Utd review

Paul Scholes has delivered a scathing assessment of Erik ten Hag and the Manchester United squad following last weekend’s loss to Manchester City.

The Red Devils were beaten 6-3 by the Premier League champions on Sunday, but it’s a scoreline that doesn’t accurately reflect City’s dominance, with Pep Guardiola’s side 4-0 up at the break and leading 6-1 going into the final 10 minutes.

Scholes felt United were too open at the Etihad, questioned Ten Hag’s decision to start Christian Eriksen in the middle, and felt Antony and Sancho neglected their defensive responsibilities.

The 47-year-old gave a passionate, yet highly critical, breakdown of the Red Devils’ performance at the weekend when speaking during BT Sport’s pre-match Europa League coverage of Thursday’s game against Omonia Nicosia.

Here’s every word Scholes had to say…

“It was a difficult day. You have to remember United were playing against the best team there probably is, and they got it badly wrong. I think the manager probably has to take some responsibility for that, for the team he picked.

“He picked a team that had won [the last] four games, not in a convincing way, and he went with them again. They were too open, they almost disrespected City, a great team, thinking they could go toe to toe with them and play attacking players. Eriksen, in a midfielder role, which he can get away with against the weaker teams, but once you go to Man City you need at least two players in the middle of the pitch who can play the position perfectly well, defensively, I’m talking about.

“Eriksen doesn’t really do that. We know how good he is going forward, what a good passer of the ball he is. But when you’re talking about defensive midfield players who know how to play the position perfectly well against [Kevin] De Bruyne, [Phil] Foden, sometimes four or five players in there. It’s a very difficult job to do and I felt a bit sorry for him.

“I’ve never seen any team have a foothold against one of Pep Guardiola’s teams, it just doesn’t happen. You have to be very defensive, first and foremost stop the goals going in and then at some point you can possibly get on the counter attack with the pace you have.

“I thought the wide players were lazy. When you have two full-backs who are unproven really at the highest level, in [Diogo] Dalot and [Tyrell] Malacia, and they were left alone. I know Jack Grealish and Phil Foden have had a lot of plaudits for the way they played, and rightly so on Sunday.

“But if you go back to the Dortmund game, Jack Grealish especially struggled because Dortmund got it tactically perfect. Every time the ball went to him there were men around, they had five, six players around him, there were actually players helping their full-backs. He had nowhere to go and he took a bit of stick for that. Now, at the weekend, Jadon Sancho and Antony were a waste of time.”