Paul Scholes has bemoaned Manchester United’s ‘recruitment mess’ under Erik ten Hag and outlined his concerns about summer signing Joshua Zirkzee in the wake of the side’s goalless stalemate with Aston Villa.
The Red Devils headed to Villa Park in need of a strong performance on the back of a miserable start to the season both domestically and in Europe, with Ten Hag’s men held to a 3-3 draw by Porto in midweek.
But a much-changed United team struggled to create clear-cut chances and Bruno Fernandes came closest for the visitors with a free-kick which struck the cross bar.
United later wasted a golden opportunity to break the deadlock in stoppage time, only for Alejandro Garnacho to fluff his pass to Fernandes, who was clean through on goal after a rapid counter-attack.
The result leaves the Old Trafford giants stranded down in 14th place in the Premier League table, a position Dimitar Berbatov feels is ‘unbelievable’ for a club of United’s stature.
Legendary ex-United and England midfielder Scholes, meanwhile, never truly believed his former team were going to Villa with the sole intention of winning the game.
‘It’s a point for United, going to a tough ground under a lot of pressure,’ Scholes said in the SuperSport studio shortly after the final whistle.
‘I never really felt like they went there to try and win the game. It was more of a survival tactic more than anything.
‘But from everything we’ve said before the game, United were quite tough to play against today and you have to take into account the midweek fixtures.
‘Villa had a big lift from Bayern Munich, winning that game, big atmosphere and they struggled to really live up that today. You could see they probably suffered a bit.
‘For Manchester United, it’s difficult to go away in Europe on Thursday night and it was a tough game against Porto with ten men for some of the game so I think the game probably reflected the midweek that both clubs had.’
Three of United’s high-profile summer signings started on the bench versus Villa, with Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt and Zikzee all left out of Ten Hag’s starting XI.
According to Scholes, the situation just sums up United’s seemingly directionless recruitment after a ‘ridiculous’ amount of spending in recent years.
‘In forward areas especially, I just don’t think the quality is there,’ he added.
‘We go back to the most successful teams, they’re capable of scoring goals. What have we scored? Five goals in seven games.
‘Now we had three or four forwards who could get you 20 goals so you’re looking at 80 goals a season there and I just don’t see that in the forward line at Manchester United.
‘Look, [Rasmus] Hojlund does alright but is he gonna score you 20 goals? I don’t think so.
‘Zirkzee… what is he? Is he a No.9 or a No.10? Is he going to get you 20 goals? I don’t think so.
‘I think they’re relying more on hope than actual proven quality and they spent so much money as well.’
Scholes continued: ‘It’s a ridiculous amount of money and some of them can’t get in the team!
‘You think of Ugarte coming into the club who was supposed to change the way the midfield was… he didn’t play him.
‘De Ligt, £50m and he didn’t play him. Jonny Evans has come in at 36 years old instead of him.
‘[Lisandro] Martinez, Ten Hag brought him into the club. What’s he thinking today? Jonny Evans is playing, Maguire started, [Victor] Lindelof comes on before him. It’s just a recruitment mess really.’
Scholes believes United’s failure to land on an identifiable playing style under Ten Hag has made it ‘very difficult’ for the club in the transfer market.
‘When you don’t have a style of play and you don’t know how to play, or the way you want to play, it’s very difficult to choose players,’ he went on.
‘With Liverpool it was quite simple to buy, you know what you’ve got to do. They play 4-3-3 and you can recruit for that.
‘But when you don’t have a style of play, you don’t know how you’re going to play, it changes from week to week, you’re almost throwing balls in the air and saying, “He looks a good player, we’ll try and get him”.’
