Gabby Agbonlahor believes six Manchester United players should be fined for their 'embarrassing' performances against Manchester City on Sunday (October 2).
Erling Haaland and Phil Foden both scored hat-tricks as City beat their great rivals 6-3 at the Etihad Stadium and were even 4-0 up at half-time. Agbonlahor highlighted Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen for their poor performances.
Manchester United were completely blown away by their neighbors and speaking to Football Insider, the former Aston Villa and England striker stated:
“A leopard doesn’t change its spots. Some of these players are, for me, bottle jobs. They turned up when they had the home crowd on their side against Arsenal, against Liverpool. When it comes to away from home, it’s the same old Man United. The players that Man United had, they should be doing a lot better."
"Nobody wanted the ball, they were giving it away, nobody showed composure, there were nervous passes from Rashford and McTominay. Fernades was woeful and Eriksen was dreadful. Varane and Martinez were pathetic. Martinez looked like a little boy trying to mark Haaland."
Talking about the embarrassing performances of the Manchester United players, Agbonlahor continued:
"There are problems there. Everyone was getting carried away by Man United’s decent form. You don’t lose 6-3 in a derby, you don’t let two players score a hat-trick against you. It’s the most embarrassing result I’ve seen in recent years from Man United."
"It just shows that you are an easy touch. All those players and the manager should get fined by the club for embarrassing the club across the world, to be honest. Two players were laughing because they both got a hat-trick in the derby. If that doesn’t show how miles off it you are as a club then nothing will.”
Christian Eriksen concedes Manchester United's display against City was 'far from acceptable'
The Red Devils went into the clash on an excellent run of form but were completely blown away by the Premier League champions.
Following the damaging defeat, Eriksen spoke to Sky Sports to criticize his teammates'' display. He stated (as per Manchester United's official website):
"We started on the wrong foot and they have a lot of chances straight from kick-off. I think we can only blame ourselves for not coming into the game at any point."
He added:
"The main focus from this game should be on ourselves and there are a lot of things we need to change and a lot of things we need to do better. Today was far from acceptable."