Paul Scholes has made the bold claim that Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag "disrespected" local rivals Manchester City after they were on the wrong end of a 6-3 drubbing at the Etihad on Sunday.
In truth, the scoreline actually flattered United - who were 6-1 down at one point and 4-0 down at half-time. Two late goals from Anthony Martial helped spare some blushes, but the gulf in quality between the two teams was on full display for all to see.
Scholes was scathing in his assessment of how Ten Hag approached the derby clash. Speaking as part of BT Sport's coverage of United's Europa League contest against Omonia, the Red Devils legend explained: "It was a difficult day, you're playing against not just the best team around but in the world and they got it badly wrong.
"The manager has to take some responsibility for the team he picked, he went with the team that won four games in a convincing way and went with them again and they were too open."
Scholes went on to make the eye-opening accusation that Ten Hag didn't give City the respect they deserve, suggesting it was foolish to think United could compete with their neighbours without changing their own style of football.
"They almost disrespected a great team in City thinking they could go toe-to-toe with them. [Christian] Eriksen in that holding midfield role, which, when you go to Man City, Eriksen can get away with that role against a weaker team.
"Once you got to Man City you need at least two players in the middle of the pitch who can play the position perfectly well, defensively, Eriksen doesn't do that, we know how good he is going forward, what a great passer he is.
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"But when you are talking about defensive midfield players, knowing how they play the position perfectly well against [Phil] Foden, [Kevin] De Bruyne, sometimes four or five players in there it's a difficult job to do, I almost felt sorry for him."
Eriksen was overrun in the middle of the park by City's plethora of world-class options, Foden, in particular, getting plenty of joy as he became the first Manchester-born City player to score a hat-trick in the derby of the Premier League era.
Erling Haaland continued his sensational run of form in front of goal with a hat-trick of his own, taking his tally to 14 league goals in eight games this term.
United don't have anyone that can even come close to competing with that kind of goal-scoring, but they will be hoping for an impressive goal haul of their own for their trip to Omonia in match-day three of the Europa League group stage.
