Paul Scholes Hated Playing With Two Man United Team-Mates Who Were A 'Disaster'

Paul Scholes did not enjoy playing alongside two players in particular during his time at Manchester United.

Scholes spent his entire professional career, between 1993 and 2013, with United under Sir Alex Ferguson.

He retired at the end of the 2010/11 season but returned to United in January 2012, playing for another 18 months before retiring for good.

Scholes became a pundit in retirement for Sky Sports and, later, TNT Sports, but announced on The Overlap's Stick to Football in October that he has stepped away from television work to care for his son, Aidan, who has non-verbal autism.

The episode also covered in-depth Scholes' 20-year playing career at Old Trafford, where he became one of the world's top midfielders.

He was fielded as an attacking midfielder and occasional striker during much of his career as a player, and scored 20 goals in all competitions during the 2002/03 season.

As he drew closer to the end of his career, Scholes was dropped deeper, becoming something of a deep-lying playmaker in midfield.

But speaking to Gary Neville in an earlier episode of The Overlap in 2022, the former England international revealed that he never played well alongside a midfield partner who, like himself, didn't place emphasis on the defensive side of the game.

He used the example of Juan Sebastian Veron, the Argentina international who United spent an English transfer record fee of £28.1 million to sign from Lazio in 2001.

Although he made 82 appearances across his two seasons at Old Trafford, Veron struggled to adapt to the Premier League and, though he was sold to fellow top-flight club Chelsea, suffered injury problems at Stamford Bridge.

Scholes also said he struggled to play alongside Anderson, who joined United aged 19 in 2007.

The Brazil midfielder won the Golden Boy award as a United player, but never hit the heights expected of him after his £20 million transfer.

He only made at least 20 Premier League appearances in one of his eight seasons as a United player, and left the club in 2015.

"I played with Nicky Butt, I played with Roy [Keane]. Michael Carrick. I loved playing with all of them," he said.

"It wasn't great playing with people who [were] attacking people. I needed someone who played that position really well."

"Someone like Veron, you mean?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, me and Veron were a disaster," Scholes admitted. "I think me and Anderson did it once. Just, no, it's not working, is it? Just two lads who don't care about defending, don't know the position that well.

"But it worked better with a Michael or a Roy or a Nicky. They were brilliant playing that position, they knew [the defensive side]. I didn't know the position that well. I didn't play in the position that well, as you know."