Paul Scholes Will Be Remembered As a Great Player - But Not for His Tackling

Filed under: Manchester United, Football

Just as you are never going to see a shift in Arsene Wenger tactics, you are not going to change Paul Scholes' combative style.

Arsenal are pleasing on the eye and will never adopt a route one approach.

Scholes is also eye-catching on the ball, as he sees passes others do not and brings a general energy and intelligence to his midfield play that has been the envy of most rival clubs for the best part of the past two decades. He has everything in his armoury ... except one thing.

He has always been, and remains, limited, if not downright incapable, when it comes to the art of tackling.

His tally of red cards throughout his career speaks volumes. All too often, he steps over the mark.

And he was at it again in the closing stages of their FA Cup win over Arsenal.

Having picked up another needless booking, his 10th of the season, he should have been given his marching orders after throwing himself at the feet of Samir Nasri.

It was a moment of madness that referee Chris Foy failed to act upon.

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At the age of 36, Scholes is not going to change. All those years after he was suspended for the 1999 Champions League final with Bayern Munich after his exuberance got the better off him, it is too late to expect a player in the autumn of his career to re-invent himself.

But those who try to justify this side of Scholes' on-field personality by merely claiming he should be forgiven because he is incapable of tackling are missing the point. It is a poor excuse in a player as technically proficient as the United man and, were he a youngster starting out on his career now rather than a veteran coming towards the end of it, it is safe to assume he would be viewed very differently in the football fraternity.

The game is refereed very differently to the way it was when Scholes was a fresh-faced teenager and, it is safe to bet, were he starting out now, many more red cards would lay in wait for him over his career.

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The Scholes away from the pitch is of course a different animal to the one on it.

He normally hides away from the cameras and all the publicity and trappings that go along with modern football and the rare occasions upon which Scholes does do anything publically, he comes across as a fine role model.

But he doesn't deserve saintly status, simply because of longevity and the fact the veteran midfielder shies away from the limelight.

When Wenger launched an alternative assessment on Scholes in August, branding him 'dirty' and having a "darker side", perhaps he had a point. And, perhaps, Scholes' behaviour on Saturday at Old Trafford was a response to those comments.

He said: "Ask me if he's been a fair player, I say no. I'm sorry, for me he's not been fair. There's a little bit of a darker side in him. I don't like some things he does.

"It's not because you are older suddenly that you are a saint. With Scholes you have more than one (reckless tackle).

"I can remember a few. Unfair? Of course."

Wenger was less forthcoming on Saturday after his team were knocked out of their third competition in two weeks; after all, there were bigger concerns for the manager of the slumping Gunners than the reckless play of Scholes

"I feel the pitch was good, the referee was good and the tackles of Paul Scholes were bad," was Wenger's only observation.

Scholes quit the international scene with England far too early but bearing in mind he became only the seventh player to be sent off for his country, against Sweden in 1999, it may have saved him more international red cards in the ensuing years.

Yes, there's no doubt that when Scholes brings the curtain down on his career he will be remembered as one of Manchester United's best ever players.

But, despite outfoxing his rivals on a consistent basis for two decades, perhaps the other side of his game, and his disciplinary record, should be remembered also.

 

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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/03/13/paul-scholes-will-be-remembered-as-a-great-player-but-not-for/

Andrea Pirlo Andres Iniesta Andriy Shevchenko Andy Murray Andy Roddick