Schmeichel claims ‘odd one out’ at Man Utd is not ‘good enough’ after Barcelona win

Joe Williams
Man Utd legendary goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel

Peter Schmeichel doubts Man Utd striker Wout Weghorst has the ability to be a Red Devils player after they beat Barcelona at Old Trafford on Thursday night in their Europa League knockout play-off clash.

Robert Lewandowski’s penalty had Man Utd facing an all-too-familiar European exit to Spanish opposition, only for Fred to fire home and Antony to superbly seal a memorable 2-1 comeback win and 4-3 aggregate success.

Weghorst, who signed on loan for the rest of the season from Burnley in January, started for Erik ten Hag’s side in their victory over Barcelona but Man Utd legend Schmeichel has labelled the Dutch striker as the “odd one out”.

Schmeichel told BBC Sport: “The way Ten Hag and his team have recruited has been very good – [but] it’s not been fantastic – there are question marks over certain players.

“Wout Weghorst has arrived on loan. You can argue that’s what was available at the time but I’m thinking is there not someone younger at the club you could have given that opportunity?

“Wouldn’t that have been more beneficial for the club? They’ve brought in a striker who has played every game since he has arrived and scored one goal. It wasn’t even a deciding goal. Of course we are right to question that decision.

“We haven’t spoken about Wout Weghorst tonight and he is a bit of the odd one out for me.

“He has started every game and we are still waiting to see if he is good enough for this Manchester United side and I don’t think he is.”

Weghorst has scored just one goal in the League Cup since joining Man Utd but the former Wolfsburg striker is happy to just be giving his all to the team.

Weghorst told Sky Sports: “Of course I have played in some different positions, it’s also new to me.

“What I can bring to the team? I hope lots of energy, I hope the belief. Of course I am someone who is giving a lot of effort against the ball also, try to get high pressure on the opponent, get the guys around me free.

“Of course, get myself also free and scoring goals so that’s definitely a point we need to improve, because I know I’m capable of bringing that also to the team.

“That’s something that so far hasn’t worked as we wanted, as we planned, but overall I’m just somebody who is giving his all to the team with a lot of energy and trying to win all these trophies we’re still capable of.”

When asked why Ten Hag chose to take him off at half-time, Weghorst continued: “Of course we were not satisfied, he was not satisfied. It was not the way we wanted to play. We didn’t do the things that we wanted.

“[Ten Hag wanted] more energy, more belief, more fight – fighting our way back into the match and creating good momentum, good atmosphere, good feeling.

“And I think second half, Antony came in, great of course. I think also the match-up that was needed. We knew they were vulnerable in the back, the runs in behind, that was something we couldn’t do like we wanted in the first half.

“So unfortunate for me today, but I think the second half was a great one for us and a really good result.”

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