PAUL SCHOLES has slammed Manchester United’s transfer business and Erik ten Hag’s tactics after the bore draw against Aston Villa.

The Red Devils drew 0-0 yesterday to make it five games without a win.

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Ten Hag’s side have picked up eight points from seven Premier League games, which is the the United’s worst-ever start to a season.

With the manager set to cling onto his job until after the international break, Scholes hit out at the boss, the players and club chiefs.

Despite a £180m summer outlay on Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro, Noussair Mazraoui, Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee, the Man Utd legend took aim at the transfer strategy.

Scholes ranted to SuperSport: “Zirkzee, what is he? Is he a No9 or a No10? Is he going to get you 20 goals? I don’t think so.

“Rasmus Hojlund does alright – but is he gonna score you 20 goals? I don’t think so.

“I think they are relying more on hope than actual proven quality and they spent so much money as well.

“It’s a ridiculous amount of money and some of them can’t get in the team.

“You think of Ugarte coming into the club, who was supposed to change the midfield, he didn’t play him.

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“De Ligt, £50m and he didn’t play him. Jonny Evans has come in at 36-years-old instead of him.

“Martinez, Ten Hag brought him into the club. What must he be thinking? Jonny Evans is playing, Harry Maguire started, Victor Lindelof comes on before him.

“It’s just a recruitment mess really.”

Scholes also slammed Ten Hag’s “survival tactics” versus Villa and said a lack of identity is resulting in his new signings struggling.

He said: “When you don’t have a style of play and you don’t know how to play, or the way you want to play, it’s very difficult to choose players.

“When you don’t have a style of play and it changes from week to week, you’re almost throwing balls in the air and saying: ‘He looks a good player, we’ll try and get him’.

“It’s a point for United, going to a tough ground under a lot of pressure.

“I never really felt like they went there to try and win the game. It was more of a survival tactic more than anything.

“But from everything we said before the game, United were quite tough to play against.

“But you have to take into account the midweek fixtures. Villa had a big lift from Bayern Munich, winning that game, big atmosphere.

“They struggled to really live up that today. You could see they probably suffered a bit.

“For Manchester United, it’s difficult to go away in Europe on Thursday night and it was a tough game against Porto with ten-men, so I think the game probably reflected the midweek that both clubs had.”

Man Utd player ratings vs Villa: Evans rolls back the years with Garnacho let down

MANCHESTER UNITED eased the pressure slightly on boss Erik ten Hag with a hard-grafted stalemate at in-form Aston Villa.

United looked much more solid defensively after Ten Hag rung the changes – though the Red Devils still have just eight points from seven Prem games.

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Here’s how SunSport’s Graeme Bryce rated 14th-placed United rated at Villa Park on Sunday.

ANDRE ONANA – 7

Guilty of sloppy distribution once or twice but his hands were safe enough and he did well to beat away a piledriver from Youri Tielemans to keep United on level terms.

NOUSSAIR MAZRAOUI – 6

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Managed to contain Jaden Philogene comfortably enough in the first 45 minutes but failed to appear for the second half and was replaced by Victor Lindelof.

HARRY MAGUIRE – 6

Booked for a high forearm challenge on Ollie Watkins but his afternoon ended at half-time after he appeared to jar his knee defending a corner.

JONNY EVANS – 9

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Handled Ollie Watkins well in the first 45 and showed all his experience to deal with the twin threat of Watkins and Jhon Duran for the final half hour. Rolled back the years with a five-star display to earn his Man of the Match rating.

DIOGO DALOT – 7

Sat in and rarely got forward but snuffed out the threat of Leon Bailey and was tidy enough. Crucial block to deny Philogene a stoppage time winner.

CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN – 7

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Used all his experience to plug any gaps in United’s carefully constructed midfield. Dealt with the threat from Morgan Rogers well.

KOBBIE MAINOO – 7

Nothing flashy from the England midfielder who had his work cut out preventing Youri Tielemans carrying out his magic.

ALEJANDRO GARNACHO – 6

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Fired in a first-half shot which Emi Martinez dealt with comfortably but shot hopelessly wide a couple of times after the break. Sloppy finishing let him down. 

BRUNO FERNANDES – 8

United’s skipper only played after his red card against Spurs was overturned on appeal.

Kept his cool here to avoid a third red card in three games – came closest for United with a free kick which crashed off the Villa crossbar.

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MARCUS RASHFORD – 7

Taken off at half-time in Oporto and taken off after 64 minutes to save himself a second yellow card here! 

Looked United’s likeliest match-winner after forcing an early save from Martinez before bringing the best out in the Argentine World Cup winner with a sizzling effort which the ‘keeper tipped over. Booked for a foul on Cash.

RASMUS HOJLUND – 6

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Put himself about and was involved in the clash which led to Ezri Konsa limping off. But lacked service and was replaced by Zirkzee just beyond the hour mark. Below par.

SUBS

MATTHIJS DE LIGT for Maguire (46 minutes) – 5 – Conceded a few fouls in dangerous areas. Still finding his feet.

VICTOR LINDELOF for Mazraoui (46 mins) – 6 – First appearance since March but fitted in well as a stand-in right-back. Booked for a foul on Morgan Rogers.

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JOSHUA ZIRKZEE for Hojlund (64 mins) – 5 – Miles off the pace, failed to make any impact.

ANTONY for Rashford (64 mins) – 6 – Brought out the best in Emi Martinez with a curler which was heading for the top bin until the keeper plucked it out of mid-air.

CASEMIRO for Mainoo (85 mins) – 6 – Helped see out the match for United.

Jayasuriya is already regarded as one of Sri Lanka’s greatest players after a career that included 110 Tests, 445 one-day internationals and 31 T20s.

A destructive opener and canny left-arm spinner, Jayasuriya was part of the Sri Lanka team that won the World Cup in 1996 and reached the final in 2007.

Since retiring he became a member of Parliament in his home country and acted as the cricket board’s chief selector.

In 2019 he was banned for two years after admitting breaches of the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption code.

Prior to the Test series in England, Jayasuriya also oversaw a one-day international series victory against India.

Although they lost the Test series against England 2-1, victory in the series finale and the 2-0 series win at home against New Zealand means Sri Lanka still have an outside chance of qualifying for next year’s World Test Championship final.

Celtic defender Greg Taylor will miss Scotland’s Nations League matches against Croatia and Portugal.

The left-back, 26, was absent for Sunday’s win at Ross County after picking up a calf injury in the midweek Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund.

Taylor, capped 14 times, also withdrew from the squad for the opening defeats to Poland and Portugal in this campaign.

Head coach Steve Clarke was already without 10 players through injury and there are doubts over Angus Gunn.

The Norwich City goalkeeper was withdrawn at half-time on Saturday after a taking a heavy knock to the ribs.

Vice-captain John McGinn is among those unavailable, with Nicky Devlin, Liam Lindsay and Andy Irving all called up for the first time.

Scotland visit Zagreb on Saturday before hosting Portugal three days later.

Portugal lead Group A1 on six points, with Croatia and Poland both on three and Scotland yet to get off the mark.

PUNTERS reckon a legendary jockey could see his new contract ‘ripped up’ days after signing for a billionaire owner – after losing to a 100-1 outsider.

Iconic French rider Mickael Barzalona was recently confirmed as the new No1 for owner the Aga Khan.

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And they looked to have a good thing in the first race on Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe day in red-hot filly Zarigana.

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Trained by Francis Graffard, she was sent off 1-2 favourite for the Group 1 Marcel Boussac over a mile.

And with a sweet draw in stall five she looked to have everything going right in her bid to win the £200,000 first-place prize.

Barzalona came swining in on the daughter of Ziyouni and hit the front with 50 yards to go.

But he was perhaps guilty of thinking he was home and hosed – and didn’t spot the fast-finishing 100-1 roughie Vertical Blue storming up his inside.

In a truly agonising finish for punters who backed Zarigana, Vertical Blue, also trained by Graffard, got up by just a nose to claim the most unlikely of victories.

A brilliant win for jockey Alexis Pouchin – but devastation for punters who had piled Zarigana into accas.

One punter joked the finish could signal the end of Barzalona’s time as the Aga Khan jockey.

He wrote: “Just watched the replay, Barzalona hasn’t lifted the stick once, tried to win hands and heels in a Group 1.

“Jesus, might have that contract ripped up after that.”

While another said: “That one hurt. Not sure if the jockey thought he had the main threat beaten or just got done for stamina… ouch.”

And a third posted online: “First race on Arc day and we’ve already seen the worst ride. That is an absolute shocker on Zarigana.”

Barzalona, who won the 2011 Derby on Pour Moi, was champion French jockey in 2021.

He was given the top job last week in a tumultuous few weeks for the owner, who recently announced he was removing all his horses from top French trainer Jean-Claude Rouget.

In a statement posted on the Aga Khan’s site, it was confirmed the 17 horses in training with Rouget – whose awesome Ace Impact won last year’s Arc de Triomphe – would be moved to Francis-Henri Graffard.

The statement read: “The Aga Khan Studs have announced that their horses currently trained by Jean-Claude Rouget will be relocated to the Aiglemont training centre in Gouvieux under the supervision of Francis-Henri Graffard, with the aim of streamlining their operations.

“The team at Aga Khan Studs extend their heartfelt thanks to Jean-Claude Rouget for his dedication over the past 19 years, during which time he has won seven Group 1 races for H.H. the Aga Khan, including Valyra (Prix de Diane), Ervedya (Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, Coronation Stakes and Prix du Moulin de Longchamp) and more recently Vadeni (Prix du Jockey Club and Eclipse Stakes).”

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The 2021 UK Championship winner lost at the last-64 stage of a Q Tour event on his comeback in Bulgaria last month.

In Sweden, he hit eight centuries in his eight matches over three days, including the historic 147.

“I wasn’t aiming to be the champion but I just wanted to get back to playing competitively,” he said.

After three of the seven Q Tour events, Zhao is in second place in the rankings behind Estonia’s Andres Petrov.

The eventual top-ranked player will earn a World Snooker Tour card, with the next 16 going into a play-off competition.

MANCHESTER UNITED eased the pressure slightly on boss Erik ten Hag with a hard-grafted stalemate at in-form Aston Villa.

United looked much more solid defensively after Ten Hag rung the changes – though the Red Devils still have just eight points from seven Prem games.

Here’s how SunSport’s Graeme Bryce rated 14th-placed United rated at Villa Park on Sunday.

ANDRE ONANA – 7

Guilty of sloppy distribution once or twice but his hands were safe enough and he did well to beat away a piledriver from Youri Tielemans to keep United on level terms.

NOUSSAIR MAZRAOUI – 6

Managed to contain Jaden Philogene comfortably enough in the first 45 minutes but failed to appear for the second half and was replaced by Victor Lindelof.

HARRY MAGUIRE – 6

Booked for a high forearm challenge on Ollie Watkins but his afternoon ended at half-time after he appeared to jar his knee defending a corner.

JONNY EVANS – 9

Handled Ollie Watkins well in the first 45 and showed all his experience to deal with the twin threat of Watkins and Jhon Duran for the final half hour. Rolled back the years with a five-star display to earn his Man of the Match rating.

DIOGO DALOT – 7

Sat in and rarely got forward but snuffed out the threat of Leon Bailey and was tidy enough. Crucial block to deny Philogene a stoppage time winner.

CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN – 7

Used all his experience to plug any gaps in United’s carefully constructed midfield. Dealt with the threat from Morgan Rogers well.

KOBBIE MAINOO – 7

Nothing flashy from the England midfielder who had his work cut out preventing Youri Tielemans carrying out his magic.

ALEJANDRO GARNACHO – 6

Fired in a first-half shot which Emi Martinez dealt with comfortably but shot hopelessly wide a couple of times after the break. Sloppy finishing let him down. 

BRUNO FERNANDES – 8

United’s skipper only played after his red card against Spurs was overturned on appeal.

Kept his cool here to avoid a third red card in three games – came closest for United with a free kick which crashed off the Villa crossbar.

MARCUS RASHFORD – 7

Taken off at half-time in Oporto and taken off after 64 minutes to save himself a second yellow card here! 

Looked United’s likeliest match-winner after forcing an early save from Martinez before bringing the best out in the Argentine World Cup winner with a sizzling effort which the ‘keeper tipped over. Booked for a foul on Cash.

RASMUS HOJLUND – 6

Put himself about and was involved in the clash which led to Ezri Konsa limping off. But lacked service and was replaced by Zirkzee just beyond the hour mark. Below par.

SUBS

MATTHIJS DE LIGT for Maguire (46 minutes) – 5 – Conceded a few fouls in dangerous areas. Still finding his feet.

VICTOR LINDELOF for Mazraoui (46 mins) – 6 – First appearance since March but fitted in well as a stand-in right-back. Booked for a foul on Morgan Rogers.

JOSHUA ZIRKZEE for Hojlund (64 mins) – 5 – Miles off the pace, failed to make any impact.

ANTONY for Rashford (64 mins) – 6 – Brought out the best in Emi Martinez with a curler which was heading for the top bin until the keeper plucked it out of mid-air.

CASEMIRO for Mainoo (85 mins) – 6 – Helped see out the match for United.