Former Manchester United top stars, Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes have blamed young forward, Anthony Elanga for the club’s defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 second leg on Tuesday.
Atletico Madrid have now dumped Manchester United out of the Champions League, ending their dream of winning a silverware this season.
Renan Lodi’s first-half header was the only goal second leg clash at Old Trafford and was enough to seal a 2-1 aggregate for the Spanish side.
Ralf Rangnick’s men were showing some sort of brightness in the first-half but were undone on the counter-attack by the visitors, with Elanga, who felt he was fouled in the build-up to the goal unable to get back in time to help at the back.
And Ferdinand and Scholes are insisting the young Swede showed a lack of discipline.
“I go back to Elanga, this is where you have to be disciplined and follow people, put in those hard yards,” Ferdinand told BT Sport.
“You need bodies to come back and to chase and to help and unfortunately in that position it was one man against three.”
Scholes added: “The back four, don’t get me wrong, they are absolutely all over the place but Elanga, he has to sprint back into shape.
“This is the last 16 of the Champions League against a team who are unbelievably experienced in this competition.
“When you are out of your shape, you’ve lost the ball, the first thing you do is sprint back and he hasn’t done it.”
Manchester United will now focus on finishing within top four and qualifying for the Champions League next season.
They will have to ensure victory in their remaining fixtures, hoping that Arsenal drop some points in order to achieve this.
Rangnick’s side are currently in 5th position in the Premier League table, one point behind Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.
