Gary Neville reacts to Paul Scholes foul-mouthed review of Man Utd tactic

09 January 2024 , 12:45

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Gary Neville reacts to Paul Scholes foul-mouthed review of Man Utd tactic

Former Manchester United star Gary Neville voiced his frustration at the club's short corner woes in their win at Wigan on Monday night but stopped short of sharing Paul Scholes' view on the matter.

Scholes delivered a simple "short corners are s***" verdict on Instagram during United's trip to the DW Stadium. Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes scored to send Erik ten Hag's team through to the fourth round, but a pair of unsuccessful short corner routines at 0-0 drew some criticism.

United scored just five goals from set pieces in the 2022-23 season (per WhoScored), the lowest return in the entire Premier League. They're on track to pass that this term, with four set piece goals in 20 games, but Arsenal and Everton have already reached double figures in that department.

Ten Hag's team got the important work done, setting up a fourth round trip to Newport County or Eastleigh. Neville, however, recognised former team-mate Scholes' frustrations.

"Whilst I wouldn’t go as far as Scholesy on short corners (particularly if the opposing team are giants) it’s always a sinking feeling when the centre-backs have gone up and you have 5-6 in the box and you see it played short and not whipped in," Neville wrote on social media. Not everyone agreed with him, though.

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"Most corners whipped in amount to nothing," one reply read. "Every day you understand more and more why Gary Neville failed at Valencia," was the verdict from another.

"It’s fine if they are planning on keeping the ball to carve out opportunity from a different angle. But, a lot of the time they give the ball back to oppo without putting them under any pressure from the play," a third argued. "It’s no different to a ball whipped in and going out the back. Frustrating."

Do you share Gary Neville's frustrations? Have your say in the comments section

Erik ten Hag's Man Utd are through to the fourth round of the FA Cup (PA)

United boss Ten Hag was left frustrated by his team's failure to score more. He was satisfied with the result, though, even if he felt it was too early to think about going one better than last season's run to the final

"The FA Cup is all about winning," the manager said. "It’s a knockout. If you have to replay [the tie], it’s two games, but you want to finish the job and that’s exactly the words I used in the dressing room: ‘Job done’.

"I think [discussing winning the cup] is too far [away], you have to go from game to game, especially in the cup," he added. "So we take that, but now, first, all our focus is on Spurs [in the Premier League], of course."

Tom Victor