Antony: Erik ten Hag denies he subbed the Brazilian for showboating, Paul Scholes calls winger ‘a clown’

The former Ajax forward made a smooth 720 degree spin on the right wing when no other player was near him, before firing a heavy pass out of play for a FC Sheriff goal kick.

Speaking on BT Sport after the match, former United midfielder Paul Scholes described it as “being a clown”. When Ten Hag was asked after the match if the incident caused him to take off the player, he denied it.

“No. It was more or less planned if we were up,” he said, as United went into the end of the first half 1-0 up courtesy of Diogo Dalot.

“I wanted to see Marcus Rashford and Cristiano Ronaldo close together and the dynamic on the right side.”

Ten Hag picked out Garnacho for a bright performance after his first start for the club.

“Garnacho played well, he was good in his action, so that was good to see,” he said.

“Seeing [Cristiano] Ronaldo get his goal was great. He created, the team created for him and we know he has the capability to finish. He needed a goal and now I’m confident there will be more goals.”

Of the overall performance, he was relatively satisfied, saying: “It was OK. Of course you hope you score in the first half hour so it took a bit long but we deserved that goal.

“The second half we scored two more good goals from open play and I’m pleased with the clean sheet because we gave nothing away. It was a focused win.

“Our occupation of space in the box could still be done better, the second and third goals we did that well. We occupied positions and scored.”