Erik ten Hag has been accused of "taking the easy way out" after substituting Kobbie Mainoo at half-time of Manchester United's dismal defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Mainoo has impressed since making his full debut in November's win over Everton. He was named in the starting line-up once again as United visited the City Ground on Saturday night, though it was an evening to forget for the Red Devils.
The 18-year-old was one of United's few bright spots in the first-half of their defeat. But Ten Hag opted to haul off the youngster at the break, bringing on Scott McTominay, who would have little to no impact.
And United icon Peter Schmeichel slammed Ten Hag's decision. The Dane, who won five Premier League titles with the Red Devils, questioned why the Dutchman had opted to bring off Mainoo.
"He makes a substitution I think that has a really big effect on the game. Yes, I said this before I can understand you want McTominay on, but not for the guy you take off. The guy you take off Mainoo is such a good player and he played alright," Schmeichel said.
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"He was controlling that part of the pitch very, very well. There was no need to make that change when you have other players on the pitch that are doing absolutely nothing for you. I question the substitution and what that signals to the rest of the team.
"Why do you want to make a change at half-time? Is that so you can make three breaks in the second half, you don’t have to make two? Is that it? Or is to make an impact? If you want to make an impact you have to leave impact players on. That had a very big effect on the game."
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Ten Hag had opted to haul Kobbie Mainoo off at half-time of Manchester United's defeat to Nottingham Forest (Manchester United via Getty Imag)Forest legend Stuart Pearce joined Schmeichel in slamming the Dutchman's decision to make Mainoo the scapegoat for his side's awful performance. Pearce insisted that the midfielder was not the right player to bring off.
"Sometimes as a manager you go in at half-time and you feel you have to make a change to make an impact and get a turnaround in mentality in many ways," Pearce told Premier League Productions.
"When the substitution was made and you take a young kid off who I didn’t think was doing badly for me it sends a bad message. He’s the one bright thing but it sends a message out that I’ve took the easy way out, that’s how I see it."
Despite that criticism, Ten Hag insisted he had 'no regrets' over his decision to bring off the youngster. Instead he highlighted that Mainoo had played three games in a row in the past seven days.
"He played a third game in a row in this week and that’s tough, where he’s coming from. I thought the energy was a little bit lower than the other two games this week, therefore we brought some new energy in," he said.
"I don’t regret. I thought Scott brought energy, I thought second half was much better our side. The first goal, when you analyse it good, we were downsized. Nothing to do with the central midfield there."
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