Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes has claimed that Erik ten Hag 'disrespected' Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side, suggesting that the Dutch manager got it 'badly wrong' against the Citizens.
While the game ended 6-3 on the day, the scoreline was generous to the Red Devils, who were largely outplayed by their hosts at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday as they ended the first-half four goals down.
Scholes, who played over 700 times for United, was fuming as he assessed the team's performance in the derby clash during BT Sport's coverage of United's Europa League match against Omonia in Cyrpus.
He said: 'It was a difficult day, you're playing against not just the best team around but in the world and they got it badly wrong.
'The manager has to take some responsibility for the team he picked, he went with the team that won four games in a convincing way and went with them again and they were too open.'
The retired midfielder suggested that Ten Hag should have changed his tactics considering they were going up against one of the best teams in Europe, despite the team winning four in a row against lesser sides.
He added: 'They almost disrespected a great team in City thinking they could go toe-to-toe with them. [Christian] Eriksen in that holding midfield role, which, when you go to Man City, Eriksen can get away with that role against a weaker team.
'Once you got to Man City you need at least two players in the middle of the pitch who can play the position perfectly well, defensively, Eriksen doesn't do that, we know how good he is going forward, what a great passer he is.
'But when you are talking about defensive midfield players, knowing how they play the position perfectly well against [Phil] Foden, [Kevin] De Bruyne, sometimes four or five players in there it's a difficult job to do, I almost felt sorry for him.'
