Paul Scholes has slammed Erik ten Hag’s decision-making in the second half of Manchester United’s Europa League game against Real Sociedad.
United picked up a 1-0 win over the Spanish side, with Alejandro Garnacho’s first goal for the club the difference between the two sides. But Real Sociedad still finished the game the happier of the two teams because they topped Group E on goal difference.
Ten Hag’s side needed a 2-0 victory to leapfrog their opponents and avoid a play-off game against a team dropping down from the Champions League in February. Instead, they now face a potentially tricky game against the likes of Juventus or Barcelona to stay in the Europa League.
Real Sociedad were happy to sit on the 1-0 score line in the second half and they did so fairly comfortably as United mustered just four shots in the entire match. Ten Hag did make changes to try and chase the game, but they did not come off.
He introduced Scott McTominay for Victor Lindelof and swapped Marcus Rashford for Donny van de Beek in the 58th minute, dropping Casemiro back into defence, before putting Harry Maguire on as a makeshift centre-forward for the closing stages. Scholes was critical of the calls, which saw United change their playing style to go route one in the second half.
“I think it got a little bit messy in that second half,” he said on BT Sport. “I’m not too sure what was trying to be achieved there. I think it started with the Lindelof substitution.
"United in the first half were in complete control. Lindelof is then substituted, he puts Casemiro into the back four or back three – whatever it ended up as. Marcus Rashford then coming in for Van de Beek as a number 10.
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“It’s not Marcus’ position – Marcus needs to be on the shoulder of people, he needs to be out wide, he needs to be in space, receiving the ball and being able to beat people. With Maguire going up top it just became a long ball game.
"I’m all for that – it can work – but [in the] second half, I just thought that after being in complete control in the first half, I think it just became a mess.”
Former United midfielder Owen Hargreaves agreed with Scholes’ take. “They didn’t create much from open play – only really the one shot on target from Garnacho,” he said.
"He (Ten Hag) obviously had a game plan: he wanted to play some longer balls and more direct passes and Maguire came on at the end to hope they could maybe nick something. But they didn’t create anything. I thought in the first half they played really well and if they had continued on they probably would have scored another.
“It’s a tough place to go and they kept a clean sheet, but they wanted two goals because they’ve been put in this position by the ridiculous penalty in the first game. First half was great, but the second half really didn’t go to plan from what Erik ten Hag envisioned.”
