{"id":295946,"date":"2023-11-09T07:23:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T07:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=295946"},"modified":"2023-11-09T07:23:53","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T07:23:53","slug":"paul-scholes-claims-erik-ten-hag-cannot-rely-on-raphael-varane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/paul-scholes-claims-erik-ten-hag-cannot-rely-on-raphael-varane\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Scholes claims Erik ten Hag cannot rely on Raphael Varane"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Paul Scholes claims Erik ten Hag cannot rely on Raphael Varane as he explains why Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire have become the first-choice centre-backs at Manchester United\u00a0<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ten Hag has picked Maguire and Evans in four of the last five matches<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><b>Raphael Varane came on to replace Evans on Wednesday night<\/b><\/li>\n<li><strong>CHRIS SUTTON: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is a CLOWN &#8211; It&#8217;s All Kicking Off<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Paul Scholes believes Erik ten Hag has turned to Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans because they&#8217;re better on the ball than Raphael Varane, whom the Manchester United manager cannot rely upon.<\/p>\n<p>The Frenchman was United&#8217;s first choice centre-back when fit last season, but has surprisingly lost his place to Evans this term after the 35-year-old returned to Old Trafford on a free transfer in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>The Northern Irishman has started the last four Premier League games ahead of Varane and was given the nod on Wednesday night, as United lost 4-3 to Copenhagen in the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>Maguire, meanwhile, lost his place in the starting XI last season and was on the verge of leaving the club after being stripped of the captaincy in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>The England international eventually remained at Old Trafford after a move to West Ham broke down and has since forced his way back into the team because of Lisandro Martinez&#8217;s injury.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/06\/77592785-12728685-image-a-1_1699511948766.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Paul Scholes believes Erik ten Hag has turned to Harry Maguire (left) and Jonny Evans (right) because they&#8217;re better on the ball than Raphael Varane<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/06\/77592791-12728685-image-a-2_1699511954739.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ten Hag has picked Evans and Maguire as his starting centre-backs in four of the last five matches in the Premier League and the Champions League<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Up until this season, Maguire and Evans last started a game together for Leicester in December 2019 and Scholes suggested ten Hag&#8217;s reliance on the pair was worrying for United.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I actually think he\u2019s playing Maguire and Evans at centre-half because he thinks they\u2019re the two best ball-playing centre-halves,\u2019 the former United midfielder told TNT Sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Which in itself is a bit of a worry.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So far this season, United have conceded 16 goals in 11 Premier League matches and 11 in their four Champions League outings.<\/p>\n<p>Scholes suggested the defensive frailty could be traced back to injuries that have deprived ten Hag of his first-choice options so far this season.<\/p>\n<p>Luke Shaw last played in the defeat to Tottenham on August 19, while Martinez has been out since mid-September and won&#8217;t return before Christmas after undergoing surgery to address a foot injury.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron Wan-Bissaka missed over a month because of a hamstring injury and Victor Lindelof was unavailable over the weekend because of illness.<\/p>\n<p>To compound ten Hag&#8217;s problems, Scholes suggested the Dutchman cannot rely on experienced players such as Varane and Casemiro, who have both underwhelmed so far this season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/06\/77592817-12728685-image-m-5_1699511992835.jpg\" height=\"523\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Varane was United&#8217;s first-choice centre-back alongside Lisandro Martinez last season\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/06\/77592787-12728685-image-a-3_1699511962822.jpg\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Scholes believes ten Hag has realised he cannot rely on Varane this season<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/06\/77592779-12728685-image-a-6_1699512008733.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Evans was forced off with an injury after just 15 minutes as United lost to Copenhagen\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;How can he [ten Hag] pick a settled back four?\u2019 Scholes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We saw Varane play against Galatasaray and he was all over the place.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Even Casemiro when he played he looked a bit loose and not playing his position well.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018These are two players who have won the European Cup five times [Varane has won it on four occasions], if you can\u2019t rely on these type of players, where do you go?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;You can see where he\u2019s gone, back to Jonny Evans who was a free transfer!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Varane came on to replace Evans after the latter was forced off with an injury 15 minutes into the game on Wednesday night and could keep his place when United host Luton on Saturday.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12728685\/Paul-Scholes-claims-Erik-ten-Hag-rely-Raphael-Varane-explains-Jonny-Evans-Harry-Maguire-choice-centre-backs-Manchester-United.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Scholes claims Erik ten Hag cannot rely on Raphael Varane as he explains why Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire have become the first-choice centre-backs at Manchester United\u00a0 Ten Hag has picked Maguire and Evans in four of the last five matches Raphael Varane came on to replace Evans on Wednesday night CHRIS SUTTON: Arsenal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Paul Scholes claims Erik ten Hag cannot rely on Raphael Varane - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/paul-scholes-claims-erik-ten-hag-cannot-rely-on-raphael-varane\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paul Scholes claims Erik ten Hag cannot rely on Raphael Varane - Sports Life Tale\" \/>\n<meta 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