MANCHESTER UNITED have been slammed as “baffling” and “pathetic” by Micah Richards following their defeat to Tottenham.
His Match of the Day colleagues Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker also took aim at Erik ten Hag’s side.
In particular, the trio criticised United’s midfield after they once again lost control of the game at Spurs – just as they did in their opening game against Wolves.
The Red Devils missed several chances to take the lead in the first half and had a penalty shout turned down before Pape Matar Sarr and a Lisandro Martinez own goal gave Spurs a 2-0 win.
Richards was left perplexed by United’s performance and could not work out what their plan on the pitch was.
He said on The Rest is Football podcast: “Manchester United are so baffling in what they are trying to do. Just when you think they’ve cracked it and are going on an upward spiral they put out two pathetic performances.
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“They need something in midfield because they’re not controlling games at all.”
Shearer agreed with his colleague and suggested Ten Hag will have to fix the midfield issue if United are to improve and start picking up more wins.
The pundit was also highly critical of the performance in North London, adding: “They were terrible at the weekend United. Until he [Ten Hag] sorts that conundrum out in midfield then they are going to continue to have problems.
“Clearly those three in Casemiro, Mount and Fernandes, it hasn’t worked in the two games.
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“They’ve been battered in both games in that department – overrun, outthought, outfought, big work to be done there for them to improve.”
The stats prove Shearer’s point – Fernandes has been dribbled past seven times per Opta, more than any other player in the division.
Casemiro is next on the list at six while Mount ranks inside the top 11 – United have also been dribbled past more than any other team with 36.
MOTD presenter Lineker also identified another issue with United at present – claiming their wingers do not track back.
And he suggests that has added to United becoming more exposed in the middle of the park, as Casemiro is the only defensive-minded midfielder.
He said: “If you’re going to play that way with two forward-thinking midfielders and only one predominately defensive-minded midfielder you’ve got to have your two wide men working hard and tracking back and they don’t really do that.
“So they’ve clearly got problems in that department, probably more than the problems they’ve got up-front.”
Most dribbled past players
Bruno Fernandes – 7
Casemiro – 6
Lisandro Martinez – 5
Lucas Paqueta – 5
Jaiden Anthony – 5
Martin Odegaard – 5
Said Benrahama – 5
Dan Burn – 5
Joao Gomes – 5
Marcos Sensei – 5
Mason Mount – 4
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
