Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has hit out at a number of the club’s players taking up strange positions and not seeming like they know where they’re supposed to be after the 1-1 draw at home to Southampton.
The Red Devils endured a difficult season, with Ralf Rangnick coming in as interim manager after the nightmare start made by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Things haven’t improved that much under Rangnick, however, with Scholes’ assessment certainly not making the German coach sound as much like the master tactician he’s often been made out to be.
Rangnick arrived at Old Trafford with a great reputation, having been highly influential in the careers of Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, who are now up there with the very finest managers in world football.
Scholes, however, pointed out just how all over the place some of Man Utd’s players were against Southampton, which perhaps suggests Rangnick isn’t really having the desired impact with his tactical work.
“I think Fernandes could be a little bit of a problem you know,” Scholes said on BT Sport, as quoted by the Metro.
“As much as he’s such a talented lad – when he first came to the club he scored so many great goals, so many assists – but he’s all over the football pitch.
“A coach would tell you better that from a defensive point of view, how can you set up in a shape when you have no idea where the start of it – the start of it is Cristiano Ronaldo, and then it’s Fernandes – how can you set traps for teams when you don’t know where some of your players are going to be.
“Paul Pogba tends to wander about. You see Fernandes, sometimes he’s left-back, he’s right-back, at the end of the game he was playing behind Dalot for five minutes!
“United were all over the place. At one time Scott McTominay is left all alone in midfield, then it’s Pogba on his own. Where Bruno Fernandes is playing I don’t know. He’s absolutely all over the pitch.
“The two wide players don’t work anywhere near hard enough. This game isn’t always about possession and doing the great stuff. Sometimes you’ve got to do the ugly stuff and gives you a bit of pain and you don’t like doing it. This team jog back and it’s so easy to play against.”