Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes explains his reason why Andre Onana and Matthijs de Ligt signings were a terrible mistake made

Paul Scholes, a former midfielder for Manchester United, talks about why he thinks signing Andre Onana and Matthijs de Ligt was a bad idea.

Paul Scholes, a famous playmaker, has said that the signings of Andre Onana and Matthijs de Ligt have not helped Manchester United’s ability to play the ball out from the back.

When it became clear that David de Gea’s deal would not be renewed in July of last year, United quickly signed Onana. Due to his skill with the ball, the goalkeeper was boss Erik ten Hag’s first choice to replace the Spaniard.

Ten Hag had worked with Onana before at Ajax and was excited to work with him again at Old Trafford. As his first season in M16 went on, he got better. He played 51 times in all categories and helped the team win the FA Cup.

“I think Arsenal under Michael Arteta are good at it, but their players have to be good enough to do it.”

“I think Ten Hag actually wants to do it a bit with bringing that ‘keeper [Onana] in and De Ligt, but they’re still not good enough at doing it and they end up just booting it anyway.”

Onana and De Ligt played together at Ajax and then joined up again at Old Trafford last month after De Ligt was signed from Bayern Munich. He was brought in to help United’s center back choices along with Leny Yoro.

The 25-year-old De Ligt has only played three times for the club so far. He made his debut in the 3-0 loss to Liverpool before the international break. He was put in the middle of the defense with Lisandro Martinez, who was also a player for Ajax.

But Scholes isn’t sure that De Ligt or Onana have made it easier for United to play the ball out from the back, even though De Ligt has only played three games for United so far.

He told the Stick to Football podcast, “When Pep [Guardiola] first started doing it, you thought, ‘Wow, that’s brilliant.’ He’ll still do it now, of course he will.”