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Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has claimed that the signings of Andre Onana and Matthijs de Ligt have not helped the club.
United secured Onana’s services from Inter Milan in the summer of 2023 as a direct replacement for David de Gea.
The Cameroonian’s maiden season in England was a mixed one. In the early stages of the campaign, he made multiple high-profile errors that dearly cost the Reds, especially in the Champions League.
He however also came up with a string of fine performances as the season progressed, on United’s way to winning the FA Cup trophy.
Meanwhile, De Ligt was acquired a month ago from Bayern Munich in a deal worth around £38.6m plus a further £4.3m in add-ons.
The Netherlands international has made just three appearances for the club thus far, making his first start in the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool just before the international break.
While most of his teammates struggled even with the basic stuff against Liverpool, De Ligt was one of the better performers during the game.
However, Scholes has indicated that he remains unconvinced about the 25-year-old, especially in terms of playing out from the back.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Scholes remarked, “When Pep [Guardiola] first started doing it [playing out from the back], you thought ‘wow, that’s brilliant’ and he’ll still do it now, of course he will.”
“I think [Mikel] Arteta’s Arsenal are good at it but the players have got to be good enough to actually do it.”
The United legend added, “I think Ten Hag actually wants to do it a bit with bringing that ‘keeper [Onana] in and De Ligt, but they’re still not good enough at doing it and they end up just booting it anyway.”
United return to action on Saturday when they travel to St Mary’s to face newly-promoted Southampton.
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2024-09-12 20:00:50
