Scholes more impressed with Man Utd’s draw at Newcastle

REUTERS – Former England midfielder Paul Scholes has offered some rare words of praise for Manchester United, describing their performance in Tuesday’s 3-3 draw with Newcastle United as “loads better”.

Scholes has criticised United’s style of play a number of times this season and offered a scathing assessment of their efforts during the 1-0 win over Sheffield United in Saturday’s FA Cup third-round tie, saying the entire team looked “bored”.

Despite United failing to seal a third win in a row since the start of the year, Scholes was much more impressed with his former club after Tuesday’s entertaining draw.

“Loads better,” he told BT Sport after the match. “To go and watch Manchester United, whether it’s home or away, is entertainment, it’s goals — whether you concede goals or whether you can score goals.

“Tonight that was like watching a Manchester United team. Okay, they didn’t win but they should have won, really.

“Sometimes it’s a little bit easier to do it away from home, actually, when a team comes out at you and really has a go like Newcastle did. Now they have to try and transfer this type of form to Old Trafford.”

The result means United have slipped to sixth in the Premier League table behind West Ham United and are two points behind Tottenham Hotspur in fourth place.

Manager Louis van Gaal’s men travel to take on Liverpool on Sunday.

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru, editing by Nick Mulvenney)