Ex-Manchester United midfielder
Paul Scholes has revealed that he was not happy with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s substitution during the Old Trafford outfit’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal.
The interim Salford City manager claimed that bringing on Nemanja Matic for Fred was a ‘negative move’ and should have been avoided.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took a bold decision in the second half to take off Fred, who was on a yellow card, and replaced him with Nemanja Matic. The scores were level at that point but the switch did not change the game in Manchester United’s favor.
Paul Scholes was not happy with this and pointed out that bringing on Donny van de Beek instead could have made the difference for Manchester United.
The Red Devils legend added that it would have been easy to make that switch, and Paul Pogba could have slotted into a deeper role. He said:
“I thought it was a negative move. Matic is like for like. He did okay when he came on but he’ll always just do okay. He’s not a forward-thinking player. You’re at home at Old Trafford. If there’s a crowd there then maybe it’s different and he needs to go for it but if you bring a midfield player off you think it’ll be another attacking player coming on. Whether it’s Van de Beek to push him on with Bruno Fernandes or to drop Pogba back in but it was just like for like. I didn’t think it would make any difference to the team and it didn’t.”
Solskjaer chose to stick with his diamond formation in the midfield and made like-for-like substitutions. He even took off Bruno Fernandes for Donny van de Beek later on after going 1-0 down, while Edinson Cavani was also thrown in at the same time for Mason Greenwood.
However, the rigid formation saw Manchester United make very little progress in the final third as Arsenal sat back deep and defended their lead successfully.
Manchester United are now 15th in the Premier League table with just two wins from their opening six matches. They have lost thrice this season, and their only draw came against Chelsea last week at Old Trafford.
