Schmeichel slams Man Utd boss Ten Hag for failing to play academy star against Liverpool

Man Utd legend Peter Schmeichel was frustrated that Erik ten Hag failed to give Ethan Wheatley a run out against Liverpool on Sunday.

The Red Devils were second best for the majority of their 3-0 loss to the Merseysiders over the weekend with a brace from Luis Diaz and another goal from Mohamed Salah securing the three points for Arne Slot’s side.

Man Utd did have a couple of good chances to get back into the match but new signing Joshua Zirkzee missed both from close range.

And Schmeichel can’t believe that Wheatley – who made his first-team debut in a 4-2 win over Sheffield United in April – was not given a shot to change the game against Liverpool.

Wheatley is one of Man Utd’s greatest prospects and has scored loads for the youth team and Schmeichel thinks the Liverpool match was the perfect opportunity to throw the youngster in.

Schmeichel told Premier League Productions: “When I hear Ten Hag talk about his idea, he talks about he’s got a plan, there’s a structure and there’s discipline you need to have, do you see that in the team? I don’t see it. I haven’t seen it for a while.

“I don’t understand it. We’re 3-0 down, you’ve got a young lad [Wheatley] sat there on the bench who has scored a tonne of goals for the youth teams, we’re 3-0 down, why not put him on?

“He takes Zirkzee off, takes the striker off. Why not give him 10 minutes – what if he scored, what would that do for the next two months for the team, for him?

“That would give him another option as a manager, why not try it out?

“In our time I was a senior player when you [Paul Scholes] went into the team, we had five young players at the same time in the team. And sometimes, yes, it didn’t work, but when it worked. You need to try it out, if you have him on the bench.”

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When asked to describe Ten Hag’s style of play at Man Utd, Schmeichel added: “I still don’t know and it’s probably one of the most disappointing things is that we’ve had these opportunities now.

“He comes in, Erik, he comes in with a really, really good reputation. He’s allowed to spend a lot of money.

“He’s bringing Antony and Casemiro in, which changes the whole club. The structure of the club changes because of that. I think part of the reason that the sale happened was because they had to finance those two players. So from that moment on the club changed.

“Then you have somebody coming in running the club and there’s been opportunities to make those changes, make those really, really big statements, say, ‘these are our standards, we will not tolerate any less than this’.

“When we lost to Crystal Palace, towards the end of last season, when that game was lost, that was the opportunity where they could’ve said, ‘we will not tolerate this’.”