Scholes slams Man Utd, insisting they were ‘as bad as you’ll see’ for 80 minutes

Paul Scholes claimed Manchester United performed as horribly as possible against Southampton for 80 minutes despite winning 3-1.

The Red Devils needed a 12-minute hat-trick from Amad Diallo at Old Trafford on Thursday to spare their blushes, with the youngster's first goal coming after 82 minutes.

Southampton were dangerous for large parts of the match as the hosts struggled to contain Kamaldeen Sulemana, Tyler Dibling and Mateus Fernandes.

Scholes felt his former team had been outclassed and manager Ruben Amorim should be internally seething about the performance.

“For 80 minutes that's as bad a performance as you'll see, especially against a team that was bottom of the league,” Scholes told TNT Sports.

'For 80 minutes they (Southampton) were so much better than Manchester United, in terms of passing the ball, technically and tactically. Amad Diallo was the only bright spark.

'I still think the manager will be disappointed with this performance, against a team that struggles to score goals and concede so many. Amad is the only one who can take the honors out of this match tonight.

'I thought they were a lot better tactically and technically than Manchester United. Man United were really poor.

'Rasmus Hojlund's control was sometimes so bad that he kept giving it back to them.

“Southampton was on another level. It is solely thanks to Amad Diallo that United won the match, the rest of the players. [take a] take a good look at yourself.'

Saints had not scored from a corner all season, but went into half-time 1-0 down after their set-piece was accidentally knocked in by Manuel Ugarte.

The visitors could have doubled their lead when Sulemana struck from close range early in the second half, but Matthijs de Ligt blocked the shot.

Diallo managed the turnaround and took home the player of the match award.

United rose three places to the lofty height of 12th in the Premier League after 21 games, while Southampton sit bottom with just six points, the worst record of any team at this stage of the season.

“Much better than Manchester United (for most of the match), the last 15 minutes we were like innocent children,” said an irate Saints boss Ivan Juric.

'Not a good mentality. To win this game, you don't have to play 75 minutes. In the last fifteen minutes you have to be more and more evil to win the game.'