Paul Scholes fears Ruben Amorim has a far bigger rebuilding job on his hands at Manchester United than Mikel Arteta did at Arsenal.
Erik ten Hag’s successor has endured a tough start to his Manchester United reign and recently described the team he inherited as the worst in the club’s history.
Amorim rowed back on those comments prior to Sunday’s win over Fulham, but a fourth win in five games in all competitions has done little to pull the wool over the eyes of United’s many detractors.
Arteta found Arsenal in a similar state of disrepair when he was hired five years ago and gradually built a team that has competed for the Premier League title in each of the last three seasons.
The Spaniard began his repair work at the Emirates by rooting out troublesome influences in the dressing room, with the likes of Matteo Guendouzi, Mesut Ozil, and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang all falling victim to a no-nonsense regime.
Amorim appears to be going down a similar path, having deemed Marcus Rashford’s performances in training as unacceptable, even claiming he would rather select his goalkeeping coach based on the evidence of the England forward’s recent performances at Carrington.
When it was put to Scholes that Amorim was taking a leaf out of Arteta’s book, the United legend revealed the former Sporting Lisbon boss has a much bigger problem on his hands.
“The trouble Amorim’s got is there’s not just three of them,” Scholes told The Overlap fan debate. “You could be talking about 13 or 14 of them he doesn’t want.”
Rashford was again absent from the squad which ground out a 1-0 win at Craven Cottage at the weekend, and Scholes is fully supportive of the decision Amorim has taken to freeze the 27-year-old out.
“I think Marcus has let a lot of people down with his attitude, and I think that’s what the manager is trying to say,” Scholes added.
“You think of the young players coming through and think of Garnacho. They’re looking up to people like Marcus now, and he’s 27. He’s clearly not training properly and not living his life properly. They’re the examples these people should look at.”