Paul Scholes compares Manchester United’s ‘embarrassing’ defending to Under-10s football

Afterwards Ole Gunnar Solskjaer accepted United had been poor

Paul Scholes compared Manchester United’s defending to Under-10s football as they succumbed to an embarrassing Champions League loss at Istanbul Basaksehir on Wednesday night.

United lost 2-1 after conceding two poor goals with defenders at sixes at sevens. The first was particularly shambolic, pushing so many players forwards that Demba Ba was allowed a free run at goal from the halfway line.

“Surely you always have someone back on the halfway line, they’re pointing at Matic. You’re always goal-side, it’s like Under 10s football," Scholes told BT Sport. "You can understand if it’s last minute but it’s the first 10 minutes, it’s embarrassing. 

"They’ve struggled with them attacking wise, they’ve gone with one holding player today. Defensively they’re all over the place. 

“The defenders have to be better, forward play could be better as well. Defensively they’ve got to take responsibility, you have to defend one-on-one sometimes when you’re at Manchester United (but) they seem incapable of doing it.”

Rio Ferdinand was equally brutal in his assessment, and fumed on social media, writing: “Please tell me someone is going nuts in the changing room [at half-time].”

Afterwards Ole Gunnar Solskjaer accepted United had been poor.

"The first one is that we play a short corner and forget about the man up top. That's unforgivable ... We've not done our roles, it's my responsibility," Solskjaer told reporters.

"You don't see goals like that at this level. You shouldn't concede easy goals like that. When you do, it makes winning matches a lot harder."