Manchester United: Paul Scholes makes surprise Raphael Varane claim

Manchester United are on a bit of a roll now, having won four games on the trot in the Premier League. And that includes wins over table toppers, Arsenal, and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, even though the Merseyside club have made a poor star to their campaign. Thus, the Red Devils look like genuine top four contenders and will come across Manchester City next.

If Manchester United are able to beat Pep Guardiola’s side as well, then they would have to be considered as title contenders.

Nobody could have seen this turnaround coming, especially after the start that Erik ten Hag’s side made to the season, losing against Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford in convincing fashion. But they have gone up several gears since then and deserve a lot of credit for that.

Paul Scholes believes that Ten Hag has adjusted the style of football in order to get the results though. As reported by the Mirror, he said while speaking on The Overlap:

"“Louis Van Gaal joined Manchester United and wanted to play possession-based football, but United are not that. It was always about substance over style, scoring goals and making chances rather than a pretty end product.“The crowd get nervous when the goalkeeper tries to play a ten-yard pass, that’s not a Manchester United philosophy, that’s Barcelona or Ajax. With Erik ten Hag, he’s stumbled across it.“After the Brentford game, he realised he didn’t have the players to play that way, he knew he had to go more direct. Raphael Varane, great a player as he’s been, is not a great footballer.“David De Gea is not a great footballer. So, play to your strengths, which for United is the attacking players, and you have to admire the new manager for playing that way [more direct].”"

Scholes comments on how Manchester United have turned things around under the management of Ten Hag

It does feel like Ten Hag has made some adjustments following that 4-0 defeat vs Brentford and the current style that they are playing has similarities to the one under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the 2020/21 campaign.

For all the critics that the Norwegian manager had, for a period of time, he did get a tune out of Manchester United and guided them to a second place finish in the Premier League, which is as high as they have gotten since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Now, it remains to be seen if they can take the next step forward under the management of Ten Hag and compete for the title. A lot will become clearer when they take on Manchester City this weekend.