Sports
Merson questions Man Utd mentality following Burnley draw
Paul Merson believes the Manchester United players expected “a walk in the park” in the second half of Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Burnley.
The Red Devils were 1-0 up at the break thanks to a Paul Pogba strike. They also had two goals disallowed in the opening 45 minutes.
Harry Maguire was adjudged to have blocked Clarets forward Jay Rodriguez as Raphael Varane nodded home from a set-piece.
Maguire, Ronaldo and the Glazers all blamed at Man Utd
Pogba then bundled over Erik Pieters before Ben Mee put Marcus Rashford’s pull-back into his own net.
These disallowed goals proved costly as Rodriguez equalised for the hosts in the 47th minute.
And former Arsenal midfielder Merson has slammed the United players’ mentality upon the restart at Turf Moor.
“Man United did very well in the first half, but they came out in the second half and thought it would be a walk in the park,” Merson said.
“That was a bad result for Manchester United.
“They just didn’t get going in the second half and Burnley thoroughly deserved a point.”
Meanwhile, following the draw at Turf Moor, Dean Saunders has claimed that Cristiano Ronaldo is ‘playing with dummies’ at Manchester United.
“At one point they should’ve been 3-0 up, they were running away with it,” he told talkSPORT. “Then the minute they get a bit of adversity they seem to go backwards and crumble.
“If you asked Ronaldo, ‘Who’s the worst midfield players you’ve ever played with in your career?’ Fred and [Scott] McTominay won’t be far off.
“People are starting to point the finger at Ronaldo, but he’s playing with a few dummies, some of them are not on the same wavelength as him.
“Every time the ball was shifted around the box and they were piling the pressure on Burnley the ball was going to a really good player, to [Paul] Pogba, to [Marcus] Rashford, to [Jesse] Lingard, Ronaldo, they’ve got ammunition.
“They’ve got a bang-average back four and no engine room in the middle of the pitch, the players they’ve got in there are not up to the standard.”