Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes has slammed Manchester United’s “sloppy” football after their 3-1 loss to Watford. Etienne Capoue, Juan Zuniga and Troy Deeney were on target while youngster Marcus Rashford pulled one back for the visitors.
Scholes said, “The quality on the ball was as poor as you’ve seen from a Man United team, and that’s just the way it is at the minute. You’re not sure what you’re going to get.
Although Scholes praised Rashford, he expressed his disgust over the lack of penetration. Rashford started his first game of this season and was impressive.
“Rashford is probably the only shining light really and he didn’t have his best game today, but he looked a threat. I just think in possession Man United were really, really poor. Individually it wasn’t good enough. In possession it wasn’t good enough. So sloppy, giving the ball away all the time.”
The Red Devils suffered a third consecutive defeat after defeats to Manchester City and Feyenoord. Mourinho started Pogba and Marouane Fellaini in the midfield but Pogba seemed to be a shadow of his past.
“I thought Fellaini was alright, he does a job which stops the other team. But I think if you’re Manchester United you need more than that,” Scholes told BT Sport. “I think you need someone who can stop the play — but he needs to be capable of controlling the game of football as well, playing forward, passing forward.
Scholes has earlier said that Mourinho needs to bring Carrick to get the best out of Pogba.
“As well as he [Fellaini] has done in the first three or four games, I just can’t understand why Michael Carrick’s here. It looked last year like he was leaving, he’s not been involved a minute of the season, so what he’s done I don’t know.
“Obviously [Bastian] Schweinsteiger — he [Mourinho] is not keen on him. They need to get a playmaker in there. You’re coming to Watford, you’re not going to Arsenal.”
Scholes wants United to tighten up the defence. Chris Smalling replaced Daley Blind in the defence but Watford attack consists of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo had been in sublime form and exposed the United Defence.
“I expected them to be a lot tighter defensively, especially with bringing Chris Smalling in, but they were all over the place and every time a ball came into the box you felt Watford were going to score.
“Something’s not right there. The cohesion of the team isn’t there. He [Mourinho] needs to find the right mix of players.”
