Paul Scholes seemingly took aim at Ruben Amorim’s tactics after Manchester United spared their blushes against Leicester in the FA Cup on Friday night.
Despite delivering another underwhelming display at Old Trafford, United came from behind to secure a spot in the fifth round after Joshua Zirkzee scored the equaliser and Harry Maguire headed home the winner inside stoppage time.
Wing back Patrick Dorgu, signed in a £29.4million deal from Lecce in the January transfer window, was handed his debut but bizarrely shaped up on the right-hand side, despite primarily playing on the opposite side for his former club.
Dorgu caught the eye during the opening 45 minutes but found himself hooked during the half-time break, with Alejandro Garnacho brought on in his place before inspiring United to a laboured turnaround with an electric cameo.
But post-match, Scholes made his disagreement with the overall set-up clear.
Taking to Instagram, he wrote: ‘Inverted wing-backs… you saw it at OT first.’
Paul Scholes questioned Ruben Amorim’s tactics during Man United’s win over Leicester
New signing Patrick Dorgu lined up on the right-hand side and was taken off at half-time
Scholes took aim at Amorim’s decision to play inverted wing backs in the nervy 2-1 victory
However, Scholes appeared to quickly delete the post on his story.
Amorim later defended his surprise decision to shift Dorgu across to the right, saying: ‘He played a lot of times in Lecce on the right. That is one of the characteristics that we pay attention to a lot, to have a player like him.
‘He was a little bit anxious in the first touch with the ball. It’s a different league for him, different speed of the game, but he did well.
‘He has space, he has strength, he’s going to improve a lot. And we, as a team, we need to play better to help these new guys to perform at the right level.
‘But the position, and you can can see in Wyscout that he’s played in both sides.’
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Asked whether Dorgu may play on the right again for United, Amorim replied: ‘Yes.
‘Again, if you’re going to see the history of Dorgu in the last team, he played a lot of games also on the right. And we have to have wingers that can play both sides.
‘So I think it’s a really good, important thing, because sometimes you need a left-footer on the right side to come inside and to connect in the different way.
‘And sometimes you need the right-footed [player] to connect and to cross more balls, so it’s like that.’
