Paul Scholes was left baffled by David de Gea’s ‘strange’ performance against Real Betis, admitting the Manchester United goalkeeper ‘isn’t the best footballer’.
United sealed a 4-1 win over the La Liga side on Thursday night to take control of their last 16 tie ahead of next week’s second leg clash in Spain.
Antony, Bruno Fernandes and Wout Weghorst were on target during an excellent second-half display but Betis could have gone into the break in the lead themselves.
Following Marcus Rashford’s early opener, Ayoze Perez levelled the contest with a precise finish, sparking a nervy end to the half for Erik ten Hag’s side.
Receiving the ball back, de Gea inexplicably drilled a ball straight into the feet of Juamni, who picked out Perez inside the box.
Fernandes managed to get his body across to take the sting out of the shot with Betis watching the ball bounce agonisingly across goal and off the post before being hacked away to safety.
Reviewing footage of the incident, Scholes commented on BT Sport: ‘David isn’t the best footballer let me put it that way. Very strange pass.’
It was one of many first-half incidents where de Gea’s distribution was called into question with his long-range passing also suffering, constantly failing to find teammates further up the pitch and often sending the ball straight out of play.
Ten Hag named the same starting XI that shipped seven at Liverpool on Sunday with de Gea heavily criticised by former United captain Roy Keane in the aftermath.
The Spaniard had a few days earlier been presented with a special trophy by Sir Alex Ferguson to mark his achievement of racking up the most clean sheets in the history of the club.
On Sunday, Keane remarked: De Gea was getting presentations last week, I wonder if he’d get a presentation tonight?
‘Giving up seven goals like that. Don’t let him off the hook.
‘The way he controlled his back four, some of the set pieces and the last goal was schoolboy stuff.’
MORE : Paul Scholes says Manchester United duo ‘need a rest’ after Real Betis win
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