Paul Scholes says Manchester United ‘became a mess’ in the second half of their win at Real Sociedad, criticising Erik ten Hag’s tactics.
United won the game 1-0 thanks to a first goal for the club for Alejandro Garnacho, but they needed to win by two or more to beat the Spanish team to the top of their Europa League group.
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With the Red devils pushing for a second goal in the second half, Scott McTominay replaced Victor Lindelof and Rashford took the place of Van de Beek just before the hour mark.
While they were aggressive replacements, Scholes believes it turned the team into a mess and could not understand Ten Hag’s thinking.
‘I think it got a bit messy that second half, I’m not too sure what he was trying to achieve,’ Scholes told BT Sport.
‘I think it started with the Lindelof substitution, United first half were in complete control, Lindelof’s substitution puts Casemiro into the back four or back three, whatever it ended up.
‘Marcus Rashford comes on for Van de Beek as a number 10 and it’s not Marcus’ position, he needs to be on the shoulder of people, he needs to be out wide, in space receiving the ball.
‘[Harry] Maguire goes up top and it becomes a long ball game. I’m all for that, it can work, but second half I just thought…after being in complete control, it became a mess.’
Ten Hag was asked about his thinking in the second half of the game in San Sebastian, conceding it did not go well, but that he was forced into taking risks.
‘To bring extra offensive players in, but at that moment we were a little bit too erratic,’ he said of his plan. ‘We didn’t work that good on the ball any more. So we bring less balls in the box. That process didn’t work well.
‘I think the last 10 minutes we got the ball in the box and created a good chance. That was the idea, we had to take risks and that is what we did.’
The Red Devils still progress to the knockout stages but face tougher possible opposition, with the teams finishing third in their Champions League groups now possible opponents.
