Ruben Amorim REJECTS Paul Scholes’ scathing Man United criticism after the club legend claimed stars ‘lacked enthusiasm’ in comeback win over Southampton

Ruben Amorim rejected Paul Scholes’ claim that his Manchester United stars showed a lack of ‘enthusiasm’ in their comeback 3-1 win over Southampton on Thursday evening.

United climbed up to 12th in the Premier League standings as they earned a first home win since the start of December but only narrowly avoided a disastrous upset against the Saints.

The bottom of the table visitors took a shock lead through a Manuel Ugarte own goal in the first half and held on until the 82nd minute when Amad Diallo scored his first in a 12-minute hat-trick.

Amad’s heroics rescued what would have been a hugely embarrassing result and the performance was blasted by United legend Scholes afterwards who addressed Amorim in a post-match interview.

Scholes has been a harsh but largely fair critic during his retirement and picked the United head coach up on his previous claims that he wanted to see his side display the correct mentality against Southampton.

Amorim had praised his squad’s psychological approach in recent impressive showings against Liverpool and Arsenal, but warned his stars he would learn more about them playing Southampton than in any other game.

Untied produced a tired and uncontrolled showing for the majority of their win over Southampton before turning the match around in the last 15 minutes

United legend Scholes suggested to Amorim that United stars showed a lack of ‘enthusiasm’ in the game

Scholes was telling the United boss that he didn’t see the levels of ‘enthusiasm’ Amorim had asked for when dissecting his former club’s latest win and was met with respectful rejection by Amorim.

‘I think you’d have been looking for a bit more of that mentality, that strength, almost enthusiasm for the game tonight which wasn’t quite there again for 70/75 minutes,’ Scholes said on TNT Sports.

Amorim quickly issued a reply defending his stars, explaining: ‘It’s not just being tired but playing in this stadium we lost the last three games here and the pressure is different.

‘We try to press the opponent in build-up and you can feel the difficulties. They creates us a lot of problems between the lines. We have difficulties in pressing high in the moment, this team is not used to doing that. 

‘It seems like a lack of enthusiasm, Ugarte is late, Kobbie Mainoo is late, Bruno Fernandes going outside and the ball is inside, then one transition and Leny Yoro can’t catch the guy,’ he added. 

‘These small things push the team behind and then we get nervous without the ball. Then when you have one click, one goal, one opportunity you feel like the team can control the game better. 

‘I want to be fair with my players, today wasn’t a lack of enthusiasm, it was a lack of speed and sometimes control of the game,’ said Amorim.

A steely-faced Amorim ended the exchange with Scholes respectfully as he looks to continue United’s climb up the Premier League table when they host Brighton on Sunday.

The Red Devils needed a hat-trick from Amad Diallo to bail them out against the league’s worst team

Despite a difficult start United found the spirit within them to come back and secure the win

Meanwhile, Scholes continued to slam the club’s underperforming stars and believes beating Southampton was a lucky escape, continuing in Amorim’s absence: ‘For 80 minutes that’s as bad as a performance as you’ll see, especially against a team who were bottom of the league,’ Scholes told TNT Sports.

‘For 80 minutes they (Southampton) were so much better than Manchester United, passing the ball, technically, tactically. Amad Diallo was the one bright spark. 

‘I still think the manager will be disappointed with this performance, against a team who struggle to score goals and concede so many. Amad is the only one who can take credit out of this game tonight.  

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