‘It’s been an absolute disaster of a quarter-final’ – Paul Scholes doesn’t hold back as Man United crash out

Man United manager Erik ten Hag.

Kevin Palmer Twitter

April 20 2023 10:30 PM

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes didn’t pull any punches with his damning verdict as Erik ten Hag’s side crashed out of the Europa League after a humiliating 3-0 defeat against Sevilla in Spain.

A week on from blowing a comfortable two-goal lead in the first leg of this quarter-final, the Red Devils withered rather than rallied at the rocking Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.

Youssef En-Nesyri capitalised on a Maguire mistake and, after Loic Bade’s header, he punished De Gea’s slip in a 3-0 win that saw United make a humiliating Europa League exit 5-2 on aggregate.

The Red Devils had knocked out Barcelona and Real Betis to reach this stage, but for the sixth season running their European dreams ended in defeat to Spanish opposition.

A shambolic performance saw a host of errors from United players, with Scholes admitting the performance was not good enough from Ten Hag’s side.

"If you look over the two games, they gave away two own goals and two calamitous goals in this game (second leg), it has been an absolute disaster disaster of a quarter-final,” Scholes told BT Sport.

"They were out-fought, out-played, lacked the ability to take the ball and were so sloppy on the ball and lacked aggression in their own play.

"You turn to experienced players on night like this to get some leadership from them. (Lisandro) Martinez was a big miss, (Raphael) Varane was a big miss and looking out there tonight, it will have made up Ten Hag’s mind on a few of these players.

"This will help him in the summer. He knows by looking at that first 20 minutes, he needs better players to fill his squad.”

Scholes picked out two of United’s misfiring star names for particular criticism, with keeper Davis De Gea and Jadon Sancho under his spotlight.

“We saw how hostile the crowd were before the game,” he added. :Sevilla were so aggressive and you’ve got to give them credit.

“During the warm-ups we were eulogising about the crowd and saying how aggressive and hostile it was.

“When the United players see and hear that they need to go into the dressing room and think, “I need to be ready for this and my first touch has got to be ready.

"You see Jadon Sancho in the first five minutes tonight, the ball bounced off him three times, terrible weight of pass too. I’m a big fan of the lad but you’ve got to liven up and be ready.”