Following Manchester United’s Champions League defeat on Tuesday evening, Peter Schmeichel believes the club’s midfielders are ‘confused’ by Erik ten Hag’s instructions.
United were eliminated from Europe after a dreadful effort in a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at Old Trafford.
Ten Hag’s team only had one attempt on goal and failed to create chances as Bayern’s second-half goal from Kingsley Coman clinched the victory.
Meanwhile, Schmeichel believes United’s lack of pace in attacking areas will be a problem for Ten Hag, but believes Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay, and Sofyan Amrabat were not operating as a midfield trio.
‘Everything about today at Old Trafford was a little bit strange, just before kick-off I said the stadium was still not full, there’s no atmosphere, there was a bit of a weird atmosphere, it took all the way up to the 51st minute for the home fans to do anything like a little bit of support for the team,’ Schmeichel told CBS Sports.
‘It was exactly like that, there were a lot of Bayern Munich fans there, they were vocal all the way through, it felt like they were dominating, and it showed in the performance.
‘On the pitch, it was pretty ordinary, to put it mildly. There are a number of players on that team that need to have a talk with themselves about their performance today.
‘There were a lot of players today who thought it was all about them, trying to be the hero in a lot of circumstances where a pass would’ve been a better option. A lot of things were not going well today.
‘It’s not easy being a Manchester United fan today, seeing that kind of performance. To be honest, I never felt like there was going to be a goal coming from the start. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we generated a single chance whole game.
‘There isn’t much pace in the team. You’ve got a little bit on the left wing, a little bit up front, but then you’ve got a midfield that doesn’t seem to know what their job is – some of them are pressing, some of them aren’t pressing, and they leave that huge gap between the defenders and the front players, and it’s like two linear lines. Everything appears to be out of sync.’