Manchester United legend Paul Scholes and former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger have slammed Antony and Jadon Sancho following the derby day hammering at Manchester City.
Sancho played 70 minutes at the Etihad Stadium, while Antony was left on for all 90 minutes. The latter did score a brilliant goal early into the second period, but the strike ultimately did little to prevent United from slipping to an embarrassing defeat at the hands of their rivals.
England winger Sancho has struggled since arriving in a big-money move from Borussia Dortmund last summer. He once again had a poor afternoon against City, before being hauled off with 20 minutes to go.
Rather than the two United wingers' attacking attributes, it was their defensive work that Scholes took aim at. The former midfielder posted a picture of Ryan Giggs and David Beckham to his Instagram story on Monday morning.
Along with the image, Scholes add the caption "Anyone remember when wingers used to help their fullbacks?" The caption is an apparent hint that Scholes was unhappy with the support the duo provided to Diogo Dalot and Tyrell Malacia.
Both Dalot and Malacia were booked within the first 23 minutes as they were run ragged by Jack Grealish and Phil Foden. The latter scored twice in the first-half before completing his hat-trick in the second-half, by which time Luke Shaw had replaced Malacia.
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It was certainly an afternoon to forget for Dalot and Malacia, though Scholes has placed the blame for that on Sancho and Antony. Former Arsenal manager Wenger also took aim at the two United wingers, slamming their defending.
"I had the impression that Man United have some work to do to defend on crosses from their central defenders and from their midfielders. What is for me unbelievable in the first half is that Man United has defended so badly on the flanks," he told beIN Sports.
"From the first minute Dalot got a yellow card, and Sancho and Antony did not contribute defensively. They were, in the whole half, flooded on the flanks and they were always in trouble.
"After that, when they had the ball, I felt they were obsessed by respecting too much the game plan. They wanted always to go too quickly forward and lost so many balls and didn't have enough possession. They didn't play for possession, they wanted just to get on the counter-attack."
As well as Foden, Erling Haaland also notched a hat-trick, with Antony Martial scoring twice late on for the visitors. Despite those three goals, it was an embarrassing day for Erik ten Hag's men.
They will look to bounce back in their next Premier League outing on Sunday when they travel to Everton. Despite the hammering at City, they can jump into the top four if they defeat the Toffees and Brighton and Chelsea fail to pick up any points.
