United have suffered defeats to Arsenal and Manchester City alongside a draw with Fulham and an unconvincing win over Burnley, and sit 14th in the Premier League table as a result, while they also crashed out of the Carabao Cup in the second round at the hands of League Two side Grimsby. City new boy Gianluigi Donnarumma was one of the star performers as Pep Guardiola’s side beat United 3-0 at the Etihad on Sunday, and Scholes believes his former club missed a huge opportunity by failing to launch their own bid for the ex-Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper.
Donnarumma was up for sale for some time after being deemed surplus to requirements by PSG boss Luis Enrique, and was briefly linked with a move to Old Trafford, but Manchester City ultimately swooped in and signed the 26-year-old on deadline day.
Speaking on the BBC Football Daily podcast United legend Scholes said: “Goalkeeper was a major issue. It felt like they got to that Grimsby game, did you really need to get to that Grimsby game to realise [Andre] Onana has not been good enough? ‘Then you see someone like Donnarumma come up and you think right this is a chance. We can buy a keeper here for £35m to £40m who we’ve got for the next 10 years.
“If Man United were not in the market for Donnarumma when he became available, that’s a criminal offence for me. You buy this lad from Belgium [Lammens]. What’s he cost €20m (£18.2m). I think that tells you everything about him at this point.”
Lammens was left on the bench on derby day as Altay Bayindir started in goal for United again, despite a series of poor performances.
Scholes saw that as a sign that the Belgian is not up to the standard required, as he added on The Good, The Bad u0026amp; The Football Podcast: ‘It (the fee) tells me he’s not a top goalkeeper. ‘And if he is a top goalkeeper, he’s playing, he’s straight into the big game. Because we know United have got big, big problems in goal.
“The Donnarumma one is the biggest mistake that I can see. As soon as that man became available, drive to Paris, go and get him, give him whatever he wants. He could be easily the best goalkeeper in the world… he reminds me of Peter Schmeichel.”
United are currently preparing for another huge Premier League test, with fifth-place Chelsea set to arrive at Old Trafford on Saturday. Amorim’s side do, at least, have the advantage of more rest between domestic games with no European football commitments to attend to this season.
