Legendary former Manchester United icon Paul Scholes lamented the club’s “criminal” transfer business this summer, bemoaning a lack of midfield additions while singling out the one target they should have gone for.

United’s unprecedented success at the start of the Premier League era not only set a standard which the current iteration cannot match, but also created a coterie of retired players who now have no hesitation calling out the modern generation.

Ruben Amorim’s side have provided plenty of ammunition. United’s limp 3–0 loss to Manchester City on Sunday left them with the club’s joint-worst start to any Premier League season.

Scholes was infamously firm in the tackle during his playing days and hasn’t pulled his punches in his role as a pundit. “I don’t think the quality is there,” was the retired England international’s scathing assessment of United’s midfield unit on Football Daily. “Whatever two out of the four or five they have got in [midfield]—Casemiro, Bruno [Fernandes], [Kobbie] Mainoo—whatever combination he seems to try doesn’t seem to work.

“That’s a big issue. I thought all summer the absolute priority was a centre midfield player with legs, who can play and can control a game.

“Goalkeeper was [also] a major issue,” Scholes continued. “Did they really need to get to the Grimsby game to realise [André] Onana is not good enough? If Manchester United were not in the market for Gianluigi Donnarumma when he became available, that is a criminal offence.

“The recruitment side went to buy forwards. That did need addressing, but did it need three of them? I’m not sure it did.”

Scholes’s former United teammate Rio Ferdinand described the experience of watching Sunday’s Manchester derby as “depressing.”

While Scholes, as a former midfielder, was concerned with the middle of the pitch, ex-centre back Ferdinand fretted over the backline. “Defensively, I thought that was the most concerning thing,” he told his podcast. “I’ve been quite complimentary about the defenders and the way we’ve defended it at times this season, but [during the match], I thought it was like a hot knife through butter. it was too easy.”

“The way we allowed them to get in and get goals and get opportunities—it was weak, it was powderpuff, it just lacked anything,” Ferdinand grimly reflected.

“If I sit here now and you ask me, ‘Where will Man Utd finish?’, I would say probably sixth or seventh, I would be happy with it this season,” he concluded. “That’s looking like a long shot at this moment in time.”

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Criminal Offence’—Paul Scholes Names Biggest Man Utd Blunder .

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