Manchester United fans could be forgiven for being tired of Paul Scholes’ weird agenda against the club, but he has crossed a line even by his standards now.
Michael Carrick suffered his first defeat as Man Utd manager as Newcastle beat Man Utd 2-1 at St James’ Park.
The performance was stodgy and leaves a lot of questions for Michael Carrick to answer, but he could have done without Paul Scholes adding fuel to the fire.
Worse still, the latest weird claim he made about United is easily disproved by his own title-winning team under Sir Alex Ferguson, of which Carrick was also a part.
Michael Carrick looks in disbelief.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Loss to 10-men Everton under Amorim vs Loss to 10-men Newcastle under Carrick
Which defeat is worse? Did Carrick repeat any Amorim mistake from that game?
Ruben Amorim and Michael Carrick as Man Utd managers
Ruben Amorim vs Everton and Michael Carrick vs Newcastle as Man Utd managers
Paul Scholes’ weird Michael Carrick jibe
Carrick’s first loss during his interim spell came in his eighth game at a ground that has been traditionally a bogey place for United.
Granted, there were some glaring issues, and United hadn’t played particularly well, even leading up to this game, but Scholes’ latest jibe is patently ridiculous.
Immediately after the game, he posted a weirdly personal and sarcastic jibe at Carrick, writing, “Michael has definitely got something special about him, because United have been crap last four games.”
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In the immediate aftermath of a loss, it is a needless comment at best, and a sinister jibe borne out of jealousy at worst.
Scholes’ confusing crusade against the current United side is not new, as Lisandro Martinez can attest to, but this comment about Carrick is patently ridiculous.
That’s not just a subjective opinion because it can be actively disproved by his own title-winning side when he was teammates with Carrick.
Scholes’ side were winners, but not world-beaters
There’s a weird narrative around Carrick and United that they seemingly need to win every game by at least three goals without conceding a shot on target to just barely avoid a crisis.
Football doesn’t work like that, and the points total doesn’t lie, because six wins, one draw, and one loss in eight games is still title-contending form.
Scholes only needs to look at the 2012/13 United side to see how ridiculous the standards Carrick is being judged on are.
That season, United won the league, but they won 14 games with a margin of one goal, and lost or drew 10 games with a margin of one goal.
That’s basically 75% of all games played being on a knife-edge, which is hardly world-beating form.
Sir Alex instilled a winning mentality, so those games fell in United’s favour more often than not, and they were also helped by the overall quality of the league not being as good as it is right now.
Carrick is also achieving all these points by taking over a crisis-stricken team in mid-season, with none of “his” players in the squad, as nobody signed in January.
The lesson here is that United haven’t been “crap” in the last four games, and this one loss doesn’t make him the worst manager in the world.
It seems Scholes used all his footballing nuance during his playing days because one of the most intelligent midfielders of his generation continues to completely miss the point about everything after retiring.
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