Paul Scholes has slammed the Man United defence and Chris Smalling specifically after a horrible display against Bournemouth.
United’s back line was all over the place in the opening 20 minutes, conceded one through Callum Wilson and should have been gone further behind.
Talking on the live coverage of the game (BT Sport, midday), former Man United midfielder Scholes laid into them at half-time.
“The back four are a nervous wreck and Chris Smalling just couldn’t move his feet [for the early Fraser chance], I just don’t know what he was thinking there.
“United were lucky after 20 minutes and could have been three or four down. Bournemouth were that good and United defensively were that bad. The problem with United is at the back. The defence looks really nervous and they’ve shown week-win, week-out that they will concede goals.”
OPINION
Scholes hit the nail on the head with his comments and Jose Mourinho needs to do something about it. If you’ve got a defence that’s panicking and making mistakes, it’s going to spread to the whole team. Many managers build their teams from the back and Mourinho was always one of them. He’s got other options and he has to start using them. Eric Bailly needs to come back in and Chris Smalling needs to take a vacation on the sidelines. The 28-year-old is playing more like he’s 38 at the moment and he’s dragging the team down with him. United got away with it today. They put in a much, much better shift in the second half and nicked it late on through Marcus Rashford. Eddie Howe will go home tonight wondering how his side didn’t get anything out of the game today and everyone, bar the hardcore United fans, would agree that a draw would have been a fair result.