Manchester United legend Paul Scholes praises manager ten Hag over dropping skipper Harry Maguire: ‘Brave decision’

• Shubham
• 30 September, 2022

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By: Shubham Ghosh

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has come out in praise for the Red Devils’ manager Erik ten Hag saying it was a “brave decision” to drop Harry Maguire from the team’s starting line-up.

Ten Hag made the big call to drop the captain after Manchester United had a terrible start to the Premier League season with back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Brentford. Maguire was dropped for the game against Liverpool which the Devils won and the expensive English defender has been warming the benches for most of the games since then.

The United are currently placed at No.5 in the points table with four wins from six outings, all of which came after the two losses in the beginning. They bagged eye-catching wins against opponents such as Liverpool and table toppers Arsenal and conceded only two goals during the same time.

Also, Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane have formed a strong partnership in that period.

Scholes, who was peaking on The Overlap, as quoted by the Daily Mail, called ten Hag as a brave manager after his big decision to leave Maguire out.

“He had to leave Harry Maguire out. It was a brave decision. He’s a brave manager,” said Scholes.

The 47-year-old also said that the Dutch’s tactics at the club encouraged him and said that the latter had made a lot of tactical changes since the United’s humiliating 0-4 loss to Brentford last month.

“The crowd get nervous when the goalkeeper tries to play a ten-yard pass, that’s not a Manchester United philosophy, that’s Barcelona or Ajax.”

‘I’ve been encouraged with what I’ve seen so far by Erik ten Hag. He’s changed a lot since the Brentford game. The simple thing was, don’t play out from the back.”

“Get the ball forward to your best players. Get Christian Eriksen into centre midfield, a player who can play balls to the forward players,” Scholes said.

Manchester United next take on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday (2). The City are at the second place in the points table with five wins out of seven games and are yet to lose a game.