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2 hours ago
1 Ever since Manchester United were finalising the arrival of Matthijs de Ligt in the summer, Paul Scholes has had his doubts over his suitability to the squad.
Prior to the transfer, Scholes voiced his concerns over De Ligt, questioning why he hadn’t been a concrete starter under Thomas Tuchel at Bayern Munich, saying: “He’s coming to us almost as like a second-rate defender.”
Then, after seeing him in action for the first few matches of the campaign, the former Red doubled down on his stance last week by claiming De Ligt is yet to prove that he’s an upgrade on counterpart Harry Maguire – and he has echoed the same sentiment following last night’s dismal loss to Tottenham Hotspur.
Making his fourth Premier League start of the season, the Dutch international played the full 90 minutes as United capitulated and fell to a 3-0 defeat on home soil.
Goals from Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke aided Spurs on their way to a comfortable three points. Consequently, United sit 12th-placed in the table, having claimed only seven points from their opening six games.
Scholes attempted to dissect why the night turned so awry for Erik ten Hag and his men, and while no players did their bit to counteract such a humiliation, fingers will, of course, be pointed at the backline.
De Ligt yet to prove he’s an upgrade on Maguire, claims Scholes
“When you bring players in, you expect them to be a lot better than who you’ve already got. I don’t see players coming in who are a big difference,” Scholes began, as cited by the Metro. “De Ligt has come in for Maguire, let’s say, but there’s no big difference there.”
Asked whether the ex-Ajax star was an improvement on Maguire, he responded: “No, absolutely not.”
“These are experienced players who United have paid a lot of money for. We need to stop hearing excuses – get on that training pitch and find a way of playing. Find something, give us something!” Scholes concluded.
