Manchester United’s ‘recruitment is a shambles’ says Paul Scholes – as the Red Devils icon insists the club ‘relies more on hope than proven quality’ in investigation into Erik ten Hag’s transfer history

Paul Scholes has condemned Manchester United’s recruitment, claiming they ‘rely more on hope than proven quality’.

The Red Devils continued their poor start to the season, extending their winless run to five games with a goalless draw at Aston Villa.

Erik ten Hag’s side finished the weekend in 14th place in the Premier League with a goal difference of minus three, despite heavy recruitment during the summer.

Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs De Ligt, Manuel Ugarte, Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui all joined the club after a dismal season that saw United finish eighth last season.

However, Scholes believes the first two have failed to make an impact and has heavily criticized Ten Hag and the club’s recruitment strategy.

Paul Scholes has slammed Manchester United’s recruitment strategy this summer

The Red Devils are now fourteenth in the table, after a goalless draw against Aston Villa on Sunday

Scholes says United ‘rely more on hope than proven quality’ in an investigation into Erik ten Hag’s transfer history

The former United midfielder also questioned the roles of Rasmus Hojlund and Lisandro Martinez, both of whom were signed by the Dutchman.

‘Especially in the forward areas I don’t think the quality is there. We go back to the most successful teams: they are able to score goals. What have we scored? Five goals in seven games,” Scholes told SuperSport.

‘Now we had three or four strikers who could score 20 goals for you, so you’re looking at 80 goals a season and I just don’t see that in the striker at Manchester United. Look, Hojlund is doing well, but will he score twenty goals for you? I don’t think so.

‘Zirkzee… what is he? Is he a number 9 or a number 10? Is he going to score twenty goals for you? I don’t think so. I think they rely more on hope than actual proven quality, and they also spent so much money.

‘It’s a ridiculous amount and some of them can’t get into the team! You think about Ugarte who came to the club and who was going to change the way the midfield was supposed to be… he didn’t play against him.

‘De Ligt, £50 million and he didn’t play him. Jonny Evans came in instead of him at the age of 36. Martinez, Ten Hag brought him to the club. What is he thinking today? Jonny Evans plays, Maguire starts, (Victor) Lindelof comes on for him. Basically it’s just a recruiting mess.’

Scholes also accused United of using ‘survival tactics’ instead of going for a win at Villa Park.

He added: “If you don’t have a playing style and don’t know how to play, or the way you want to play, it’s very difficult to pick players. At Liverpool it was quite easy to buy, you know what to do. They play 4-3-3a. d you can recruit for that

The former midfielder also says Matthijs de Ligt (right) and Joshua Zirkzee (left) have failed to make an impact since their arrival

Scholes wondered whether Danish striker Rasmus Hojlund has 20 goals per season in him

‘But when you don’t have a playing style, you don’t know how you’re going to play, it changes from week to week, you almost throw balls in the air and say, “He looks good.” player, we will try to get him.”

‘It is a point for United, who are going into a difficult area under great pressure. I never really felt like they went there to try to win the game. It was more of a survival tactic than anything.

“But from everything we said before the game, United were quite difficult to play against today and you have to take the midweek games into account. Villa got a lot of support from Bayern Munich, won that match and had a great atmosphere.

‘They struggled to really make that happen today. You could tell they had probably suffered a bit. For Manchester United it’s difficult to go away in Europe on Thursday night and it was a tough game against Porto with 10 men for part of the game, so I think the game probably reflected the midweek that both clubs had.”