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INSIDE FOOTBALL WITH: Danny Webber - Paul Scholes is right, Manchester United are boring

In his latest column, former Manchester United striker Danny Webber backs Paul Scholes’ assessment that the Old Trafford club are boring.

The team I support and spent the most time at as a player took on the club I played the most professional games for on Saturday. That’s Manchester United v Sheffield United in the FA Cup.

I watched it on television as Salford City had a game on Saturday afternoon. We won 4-0 and we’re second in the table behind Blyth Spartans.

Of our owners, Gary and Phil Neville now struggle to get to as many games as they’re in Valencia, Ryan Giggs is assistant manager at Manchester United and Nicky Butt is a coach, so the one we see the most is Paul Scholes.

He’ll stand by himself on a grass bank and watch us play. It gives us a lift to know he’s watching, keeps us on our toes.

Paul has left a couple of matches early to cover games elsewhere for TV. On Saturday, he was at Old Trafford where his comments about Manchester United again made headlines. Not for the first time, he was critical of the quality of football on show. Not for the first time, I agree with him.

Scholes says it in a no-nonsense manner. He sounds like any one of my mates in Manchester who support United. None are happy with the football they are watching because it’s just not the United way. Instead, it’s boring, week after week.

I see a lot of very talented players at Old Trafford who are under intense instruction what to do. They are being drilled, rather than being allowed to be creatively free.

I’m a striker and know what it’s like to be coached. Strikers need creative licence, some things are best done through instinct and talent. Wayne Rooney does not strike me as a player who has licence to do that.

It must be frustrating for the players. They’re not 14-year-olds but experienced professionals, some of them World Cup winners like Bastian Schweinsteiger.

He doesn’t look quite the player he did - it’s unlikely Pep Guardiola would have let him go if he was - but then every player becomes less effective and more restricted when they turn out for Louis van Gaal’s United’s sides.

The club could buy Neymar, Luis Suarez (though that would be improbable) and Gareth Bale, but if they’re told to play a certain way with no room for manoeuvre then they’d become 30/40% less effective.

United under Van Gaal are rigid and possession based. It’s great for possession stats, but not goalscoring ones.

I’ve heard counter arguments supporting Van Gaal which outline the trophies he’s won and state that every club he’s left was left in a better position than when he took over.

I’ve also heard players like Xavi Hernandez speak very highly of him – as he would, for he’s a dream player for Van Gaal, one who retains possession. I don’t hear strikers being quite so complimentary and life under Van Gaal is a striker’s graveyard.

Sheffield United were brilliant on Saturday. They were allowed to play like teams have tried to play at Old Trafford for years. They shut up shop and got men behind the ball. United used to unpick opponents like that with their speed of play. Now, United’s obsession is with not losing the ball. There’s no speed of play.

Sheffield United restricted United to limited chances and survived until injury time. They can count themselves unlucky.

I had a four very good years there, enjoyed my football and had a good rapport with the fans.

I played for them in the Premier League, but the team on Saturday were well organised and gave a better account than any Blades team I played for at Old Trafford – not bad for a team 44 places below Manchester United in the football pyramid.

Sheffield United have been stuck in League One for five years, but they’ve remained a very good cup team, with a huge fan base in a big city that gets behind them for big games. They had 8,500 fans in the rain at Old Trafford. Their players are no lower league minnows, but used to playing in front of big crowds at Bramall Lane.

As a Manchester United fan, I’m hopeful for a top four position in the league, but if their form doesn’t pick up they’ll be well adrift.

Arsenal and Manchester City look certs for the top two. Spurs are doing well, with seven or eight or their players performing in every game. I can’t see Leicester City giving up what they’ve worked so hard to achieve either and they’ve had other players scoring beyond Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez in recent weeks. They have something to hold on to, the prospect of European football.

If United don’t reach the top four then it will be a resounding failure for the club, given how much money they’ve spent on top of the good players they already had. I like Van Gaal, I want him to do well, but it’s just not happening for him at the moment.