Scholes slams Man Utd star despite Everton heroics as he tells Amorim to follow Fergie recipe for success

Joe Williams
Man Utd legend Paul Scholes
Paul Scholes during his role as a TNT Sports pundit.

Man Utd legend Paul Scholes has questioned where Bruno Fernandes was for the rest of the match despite his heroics against Everton on Saturday.

The Red Devils came from two goals down to score twice in last 18 minutes and earn a 2-2 draw at Goodison Park against the Toffees over the weekend.

Man Utd captain Fernandes got their comeback underway with a stunning free-kick on 72 minutes before Manuel Ugarte scored a lovely second as the Red Devils took a point on the road.

But it was another concerning performance overall from Ruben Amorim’s side, who have won just four of their 15 Premier League matches under the Portuguese head coach and are currently 15th in the table.

And, despite Fernandes producing a moment of magic against Everton, Scholes has still questioned where the Man Utd midfielder was when they were under pressure in the rest of the match.

Scholes said on The Overlap: “When we talk about the last 20 minutes were really good and shown bit braveness. We’ve seen this before and people rave about the last 20 minutes. Oh yeah do a brilliant show, great character, but you’ve got to do that in the first minutes.

“Everton in the good old was hostile. The players had the crowds on top of them. So where are you then? Where’s Bruno Fernandes then? That’s when you win your games of football because you get to 60 minutes and you know Everton have flown about everywhere they’ve got to be wrecked, they’re going to be knackered.

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“So even if you just keep it nil-nil by being brave and keeping possession away then maybe you can score a goal in the last half an hour. That’s when you win the game as you’ve shown but they haven’t got the balls to do that in the first 20 minutes.”

Amorim seems wedded to his 3-4-3 formation, playing style of philosophy with little flexibility shown so far in his time at Man Utd and Scholes reckons the Red Devils boss should change formation to get results, like Sir Alex Ferguson did in tough times.

Scholes added: “There’s an argument about that people talk about remember the Southampton manager at the start of the season saying I I can’t go and tell me players to to play differently because they won’t look at me the same.

“But you get beat every week. Even Pep said a great coach must stick with the philosophy and that’s it and that’s what they do. But great managers also have to be able to adapt and change.

“I think of probably one of the greatest if not the greatest ever in Sir Alex. We always played 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 and we’ve struggled and struggled in Europe for a long long time. So we went to the 4-5-1 basically and we were boring to death going away from home.

“But he started getting results and we ended up going all the way in the Champions League throughout four years but didn’t win it twice because of Barcelona. So that to me is changing and having an effect on your team to get different results.

“I think as long as you carry on playing the system and he’s backed himself into a corner doing it but you’re getting beat and you’re playing so badly every week sure there something has to change.”

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