Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand were left furious after Manchester United’s shambolic defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday night. The Red Devils were humbled at home by their Turkish opponents, with Mauro Icardi scoring late on to secure a 3-2 victory just minutes after blazing a spot-kick wide.
Rasmus Hojlund opened the scoring for United with his first Old Trafford goal after 17 minutes before Wilfried Zaha equalised against his former club moments later. Hojlund struck again just after the hour mark, with the Dane firing home from close range after bursting into the opposing area from the halfway line.
The visitors went on to level up again via Kerem Akturkoglu shortly before Icardi missed from the penalty spot following Andre Onana’s glaring error. The former Inter Milan striker made amends with just nine minutes remaining as he scooped the ball into the corner after taking advantage of a lapse in concentration from the hosts.
Scholes and Ferdinand were on punditry duties for TNT Sports at Old Trafford and were both left feeling humiliated after the full-time whistle. The former singled out Sofyan Amrabat, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof for extra criticism, with all three players failing to stop Akturkoglu from scoring Galatasaray’s second goal of the night.
“Amrabat not in his favoured position but he just gets spun, the lad turns him around,” reflected Scholes. “I don’t know where the hell Varane is going, Lindelof just looks lost in the middle, and they were so open in the middle of that defensive area.”
Scholes went on to question Marcus Rashford’s ability to make the right attacking decisions, with the England ace choosing to square the ball to Bruno Fernandes rather than shooting at one stage when he was clean through on goal.
“I think the Marcus Rashford of last season scores here, there’s no doubt about it because he had confidence then,” added Scholes. “It’s a good pass from [Christian] Eriksen, who had a good second half, but I saw Marcus coming in and he’s always thinking about Fernandes but the trouble is he’s not actually thinking about how quick the right-back is behind him.”
Ferdinand, meanwhile, slammed United’s defenders for switching off immediately after the Red Devils had taken the lead on not one, but two occasions. He said: “As a kid, you’re told that you’re the most vulnerable after just scoring and that happened twice tonight, we fell asleep.
“At times, it looked far too easy and they went through us like a hot knife through butter and it’s embarrassing. This is the Champions League, it’s not school football or anything. The lack of positional awareness, spacial awareness. At this level you’ll be punished for that and they were tonight.”
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