Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel has explained why he was “disappointed” with Erik ten Hag’s tactical decisions in the Red Devils’ heavy defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
Untied were dismantled by their rivals in the second half at Anfield, and Schmeichel says he expected the Dutch boss to make changes at half-time to improve their performance.
“I was quite alright at half-time because we have been behind before, we’ve had a team talk and Ten Hag has made a few changes and then the second halves have been different,” Schmeichel said on BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast.
“I was expecting changes at half-time, I was expecting two changes and he didn’t do them, which was disappointing.
“The same team came out but for me it was evident it wasn’t working with Weghorst, it wasn’t working with Antony.
“I think if you play with Antony, you have to play [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka behind him because he doesn’t take part in defending.
“[Diogo] Dalot is in for a fair but of criticism today, which I think is unfair.”
following the defeat, but Schmeichel reckons Ten Hag isn’t helping the United captain to show his best self.
“He has looked a little bit frustrated,” Schmeichel said.
“I did the commentary for 5 Live for the Barcelona game and I was a little bit critical of him for giving the penalty away but also all the energy he spent talking to the referee about things that had already happen, they were well past it.
“I don’t think he has played in what he considers to be his best role and that was the change I was looking for yesterday. I was looking for Bruno to be moved into that kind of No 10 position.
“He may feel he’s not getting everything out of his talent playing that position [out wide].
“Also the fact he doesn’t have a position. Where is Bruno playing? What is his position in that team? As long as [Christian] Eriksen is not there, he should be playing a central position.”
“Hammering is the right word. It’s difficult. It happened in my time as a United player, we had three games,” Schmeichel recalled.
“The first one was Newcastle, we lost it 5-0, it was the first time we’d conceded five goals. We went to Southampton in the next game and conceded six. So we didn’t improve, we got worse.
“Then in the third game we played Chelsea at Old Trafford and we lost it 2-1.
“We lost three consecutive games, we conceded so many goals and in that 10-day period it was really difficult to understand what had happened because we were the same players with the same mentality.
“It wasn’t like we felt we were tired or drained, or played too many games. Just couldn’t explain what had happened.
“But from that Chelsea game, we moved on and started to win again. Like most of what is happening this season for United, every game is a test.
“We see how strong the players are, we see how deep they can dig, we see how the manager is reacting. He has been very successful in changing the team throughout games where it is not working.
“It didn’t happen for him yesterday, he has something to think about.”