Manchester United have made a disappointing start to the season, with last weekend’s derby defeat to Manchester City leaving them with just four points from four Premier League matches.
Luke Shaw has started in all four of those games and Harry Maguire has featured in all but one, although is yet to start in the league.
There have been problems across the pitch but United legend Paul Scholes has singled the pair of Englishmen out for some scathing criticism.
“Not at the level”
Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 system has been roundly blamed for the derby defeat but as relayed by GiveMeSport, in an interview with SPORTbible Scholes placed responsibility elsewhere.
He said: “I don’t think the system was the problem against Manchester City. It’s more the personnel. United lack real athletes.”
He went on to call out two current United stars who for him, typify the squad’s shortcomings. “In the Premier League, you almost have to be like a machine to survive, and we’ve got people like Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw,” he said.
For Scholes, while neither is a complete disaster they aren’t the men to count on when the going gets tough. He said: “They are not at the level. In 85 to 90 percent of games, they will probably cope with people, but when you come to the bigger games, against City, Liverpool and Arsenal, they are going to fall short.”
Should have been sold
Shaw’s playing career has been plagued by injuries and as per transfermarkt he has already played just one minute less in the Premier League this season than he managed in all of the last campaign.
Reflecting on this, Scholes said “he must have the body of a 40-year-old man” but added that “If he’d stayed fit, he could’ve been the best left-back in the world. Now, he’s playing left-sided centre-half.”
Now, however, there should be no place for him at Old Trafford. Scholes said: “He really shouldn’t be at the club anymore. He should have left along with Harry Maguire in the summer. United should have brought in one or two new centre-halves.
“They can’t cope physically in these bigger games. As soon as they brought Maguire on, I thought ‘Haaland must be rubbing his hands here’.”
Maguire chance missed
Maguire, meanwhile, has long struggled to live up to the hefty price tag United forked out to sign him from Leicester City. Scholes noted that the player “has had so much stick, it’s hard to be tough on him because he came back from it. But I think they had a chance this summer to sell.”
Maguire was linked with exits both to Italy and Saudi Arabia this summer, eventually opting to remain at Old Trafford.
But Scholes wouldn’t have been sorry to see him leave. He said: “They renewed his one-year option, I just didn’t understand that. It was a great chance for him to leave. They might have got £20 to £30 million for him. It was the ideal time. Maybe because he’s good in the dressing room, or good around the place, but football-wise, it’s just not right.”
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
