Schmeichel red-faced after brutal Man Utd comment during Villa tie

Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel savaged his former club with a brutal comment at half-time in Thursday’s Carabao Cup clash against Aston Villa. Schmeichel did not hold back in his assessment of United’s first-half performance but he was proved wrong after a much improved second-half display from Erik ten Hag’s side.Ten Hag named a strong team to play Villa, five days after their Premier League meeting. Anthony Martial was back in the starting XI after recovering from his latest injury, while there were opportunities for Donny van de Beek and summer signing Martin Dubravka.United were aiming for revenge over Unai Emery’s side following the 3-1 defeat at Villa Park. But it was a first half to forget for those fans at the Theatre of Dreams and watching on TV.The hosts barely troubled Villa’s No 2 goalkeeper Robin Olsen. The visitors came closest to scoring directly from a Douglas Luiz corner in a dire opening 45 minutes.READ MORE: England player ratings: Every member of Southgate’s squad ranked Man Utd news: Peter Schmeichel was proved wrong after his half-time comments (Image: GETTY/SKY SPORTS)Schmeichel, who had a season at Villa towards the end of his career, says Emery would have been satisfied with how the first half panned out. But he claimed it appeared as if United didn’t even want to win the game.Schmeichel said on Sky Sports at half-time: “[Villa will] be quite happy with keeping them quiet, there’s no atmosphere here. There’s nothing to give them that emphasis for a cup game.”I’m disappointed. You got beaten 3-1, a really bad performance on Sunday, you’ve got an opportunity to come out against the same team only a couple of days later and you perform like that.”It’s like they don’t even want to win. The concentration, not working hard enough, there’s so many things that are not right in this team.”DON’T MISSLewandowski accused of World Cup ‘sabotage’ of Barcelona after red cardConte told four Tottenham stars are not good enough for top levelArsenal ‘make £52.2m offer’ for top January target with Edu serious Man Utd news: Bruno Fernandes scored United’s third goal vs Aston Villa (Image: Getty)