Peter Schmeichel has criticised Erik ten Hag for not playing Ethan Wheatley during Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool last Sunday.
Two goals from Luis Diaz and a second-half strike from Mohamed Salah sealed Liverpool’s win at Old Trafford, meaning United have now lost two of their opening three Premier League matches this season.
United had chances to reduce the deficit with Joshua Zirkzee missing two key opportunities from close range.
Wheatley, meanwhile, was an unused substitute for the game having made his first-team debut for United in the 4-2 victory over Sheffield United in April.
The 18-year-old is widely regarded as one of United’s best academy prospects and Schmeichel believes the young forward should have been given minutes in the defeat to Liverpool.
‘When I hear Ten Hag talk about his idea, he talks about he’s got a plan, there’s a structure and there’s discipline you need to have, do you see that in the team? I don’t see it. I haven’t seen it for a while,’ Schmeichel told Premier League Productions.
‘I don’t understand it. We’re 3-0 down, you’ve got a young lad [Wheatley] sat there on the bench who has scored a tonne of goals for the youth teams, we’re 3-0 down, why not put him on?
‘He takes Zirkzee off, takes the striker off. Why not give him 10 minutes – what if he scored, what would that do for the next two months for the team, for him?
‘That would give him another option as a manger, why not try it out?
‘In our time I was a senior player when you [Paul Scholes] went into the team, we had five young players at the same time in the team. And sometimes, yes, it didn’t work, but when it worked. You need to try it out, if you have him on the bench.’
Schmeichel also believes United’s hierarchy should have sacked Ten Hag after the 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in May and feels the unsuccessful signings of Casemiro and Antony, which cost the club an initial £140 million combined,
When asked to define United’s playing style under Ten Hag, Schmeichel replied: ‘I still don’t know and it’s probably one of the most disappointing things is that we’ve had these opportunities now.
‘He comes in, Erik, he comes in with a really, really good reputation. He’s allowed to spend a lot of money.
‘He’s bringing Antony and Casemiro in, which changes the whole club. The structure of the club changes because of that. I think part of the reason that the sale happened was because they had to finance those two players. So from that moment on the club changed.
‘Then you have somebody coming in running the club and there’s been opportunities to make those changes, make those really, really big statements, say, ‘these are our standards, we will not tolerate any less than this’.
‘When we lost to Crystal Palace, towards the end of last season, when that game was lost, that was the opportunity where they could’ve said, ‘we will not tolerate this’.
‘That would’ve made everybody who is in here [Old Trafford] today, everybody who loves Man United, understand that now it’s a different Manchester United, the standards and the requirements of being here are different. All the players would’ve known that.
‘You could’ve put anyone in charge for the last couple of games but it would’ve given them time to get somebody else in and start all over again. That was an opportunity, they haven’t taken that, they’ve supported the manager, they’ve given him money.
‘We’ve played three games, we’ve lost two and I don’t see the difference. I could nearly cry because of that because I want this team to do really, really well.
‘I sat with Sir Alex today, it’s really sad, what he did for this football club. Everything we enjoyed, the great times, everything, to sit with him and he’s watching this, that to me is really, really sad that he’s watching that because he did something really extraordinary with this football club and all of that is not there any more.’
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