Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has slammed Erik ten Hag’s decision to take off Rasmus Hojlund and bring on Anthony Martial during the side’s 3-3 draw against Galatasaray on Wednesday.
United got off to a perfect start after Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes gave the team a two-goal lead.
An Andre Onana blunder just before the break to let in Hakim Ziyech’s free-kick effort saw Galatasaray half the deficit.
Scott McTominay restored United’s two-goal advantage in the 55th minute but yet another massive Onana howler from a second Ziyech free-kick gave the Turkish giants an avenue back into the game.
Kerem Akturkoglu’s thunderous striker with 20 minutes of normal time left on the clock eventually ensured the spoils were shared between the two clubs.
United’s hopes of advancing to the round of 16 are all but over at this point. Ten Hag’s men will need to beat Bayern at Old Trafford and hope that Galatasaray draw against FC Copenhagen during Group A’s final matchday.
Speaking after the game, Schmeichel gave his verdict on the game. Apart from Onana’s extremely costly mistakes, the Dane also took issue with Ten Hag’s decision to substitute Hojlund in favour of introducing Martial to proceedings.
Schmeichel strongly hinted that Martial’s lack of effort was partly responsible for United’s disappointing result at Rams Park.
The ex-goalkeeper told CBS Sports (via Metro), “I actually think that the back four played really well today. I don’t think they could have done much more. I thought they played well, but, again, you can’t argue that the mistakes by the goalkeeper are very, very expensive.”
“Every time a goalkeeper makes a mistake it is a goal, it’s a fact of life. I think again, when you go back to Sunday, I thought everything worked really, really well. But when you play at this level, every little mistake you make is being penalised and you’ve got to learn that.”
“When you’re 2-0 up – and it’s not the first time we’re 2-0 up in this tournament – you kill the game. You make sure the other team can’t get into it. You keep the ball, you make sure you don’t make mistakes – and a lot of mistakes were made today.”
The 60-year-old added, “And of course you also have to look at players like when Hojlund came off, a lot of the pressure from the very, very front disappeared. The guy he [Ten Hag] put in doesn’t do anything, where you had before someone who works really, really hard for the team up front all of a sudden you don’t have that pressure.”
He explained that any team that scores the amount of goals United do should only be happy with nothing but three points.