Manchester United treble winner Paul Scholes says the majority of the current squad have more to prove in terms of whether they are good enough to win trophies.
In an interview with Webby and O’Neill’s YouTube channel, Scholes namechecked Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Marcus Rashford, asking whether they will show themselves good enough to take the club where they want to go.
He mentioned the fact that the trio have played a lot of games at United and it would be fair to say that there are currently question marks around all three.
England internationals Maguire and Rashford have endured especially tricky seasons, while Lindelof has largely been better but doubts persist over his ability to deal with the most physical and quickest strikers.
“I watch United and I think the effort’s there. They are trying their best to win games. But it has to come to a point where you think – are these players good enough?” said Scholes.
“The majority of the squad, the young players haven’t proved themselves good enough to win anything. Some of these players have had a lot of games. Marcus Rashford has had a lot of games – are we ever going to see these lads reach their potential?
“Are we going to be good enough to win things? [Harry] Maguire, [Victor] Lindelof, are they good enough? We know [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Paul] Pogba, [Raphael] Varane have won trophies. [Nemanja] Matic has won trophies as well but the rest haven’t proven they can do that. They’re failing to produce what is required on the pitch.
When asked specifically if Maguire is good enough to captain the club, Scholes replied: “He’s doing the best he can. He’s had a very tricky start to the season. He looks a good lad, and can captain the club but when things are going wrong, there’s problems everywhere. Things get magnified.”
All three players Scholes mentioned were relied on heavily by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and all three played through the pain for him.
Perhaps that has stopped them showing their best form, and maybe all three would perform better in a team which had a clear identity and was playing well, with confidence.
Scholes’ more general point stands; that plenty is said about what a good squad United have, but not many of them have actually got over the line and won the biggest trophies.
That is a potential problem which it comes down to chasing the current top three, but at the moment, Ralf Rangnick just needs to get a side which can control matches, and build confidence.
Restoring Rashford and Maguire’s form will be part of that, while Lindelof is still getting sharpness back after a period out of the side.
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