Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has hit out at two players in particular after the defeat to Bayern Munich last night which sent the Red Devils out of the Champions League and out of Europe altogether for the season.
United suffered another disappointing night at Old Trafford, with Bayern winning 1-0 in what was ultimately quite a comfortable evening for them, even though they didn’t need the result.
Speaking after the game, Scholes slammed Man Utd’s wingers Antony and Alejandro Garnacho for their selfish style of play, as it seems this proved key for the team as they struggled to give Rasmus Hojlund any kind of delivery to work with.
The young Danish forward hasn’t had the easiest of starts to life at MUFC, but he has had his moments in this competition from time to time, and it surely seems worth doing more to get the ball to him in the box.
Antony and Garnacho don’t really play like that, however, and Scholes feels it’s a real concern just how much they seem to focus on trying to score themselves, instead of supporting the players in the penalty area.
“The big worry for me is the centre forward,” Scholes told TNT Sport, as quoted by the Metro.
“We can’t create a chance for him. I know he has scored five goals in the Champions League but he hasn’t got any in the league, he hasn’t got a chance tonight.
“It is a big concern, where the goals are coming from. You expect creativity from your wide players, Antony and Garnacho but they are quite selfish players.
“They aren’t players who are looking up, they are players thinking about scoring their own goals, scoring themselves.”
In the past, great United sides like the ones Scholes played in had more unselfish traditional wide players like Ryan Giggs and Nani, who could score themselves, of course, but who would also put a lot of emphasis on staying wide and getting crosses in for the striker.
Hojlund clearly has potential, but many top strikers would struggle in this current United system, so it will be interesting to see if Erik ten Hag is aware of what Scholes is saying and if he does anything to change his tactics or personnel to try to rectify the situation.