Paul Scholes has slammed Manchester United's decision to hire Ralf Rangnick on an interim basis, saying the decision 'baffles' him.
United's dreary season took yet another blow on Sunday as they were soundly beaten 4-1 by rivals Manchester City. Aside from being another embarrassing defeat in the derby, the result has also seen United drop out of the top four with the in-form Arsenal, who still have three games in hand, taking the spot.
The display was particularly damning for Rangnick's players when after one 15-minute period of play it was revealed that United had had just eight per cent possession - a near-complete surrender to their opponents.
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Scholes isn't surprised, though, and has questioned the club's decision to bring in Rangnick to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer until the end of the season. He told Premier League Productions: “What do we expect? We’ve brought in an interim coach who hasn’t coached at an elite team.
“He hasn’t coached a big team, he hasn’t coached at a big football club like United where there’s so much expected of Manchester United. Whoever you’re playing against, it doesn’t matter. He’s never been at a top club. He’s coached a club for two years out of the last 10 years.
“How have United behind the scenes come to the conclusion that this man is going to be the right man for six or seven months? It baffles me. The players are lost on the football pitch.
“The first 20 minutes I was surprised they played really well, they were comfortable on the ball, [Paul] Pogba up front looked alright. His subs have worked the last few weeks don’t get me wrong but it was a deflated team.
"As much as you can have a go at United today, they’re playing against possibly one of the best teams we’ve seen. In the second half, the players looked lost. They looked like they didn’t have a clue what they were doing.”
Kevin De Bruyne gave the Blues the lead early on but United responded well and drew level through an excellent Jadon Sancho strike. However, De Bruyne would double his tally before the break and a second-half brace from Riyad Mahrez sentenced United to yet another defeat.
Scholes says that United were lucky it wasn't a bigger scoreline and has moved to discredit the thinking that Rangnick has made them more defensively secure. “They’re lucky it’s not five or six. Again the goalkeeper, five or six saves," he added.
“You spoke before the game saying defensively since Ole’s gone he’s shored things up – he hadn’t. Never in a million years. He’s kidding himself if he thinks that. The keeper has stopped him from getting batterings for a long time. Today was exactly the same.”
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