Manchester United have experienced an extremely below par season by their standards.
Their latest game saw them humiliated by Newcastle at St James’ Park, leaving them 14th in the Premier League with only six games to go.
Individual errors led to several goals at the weekend, with many players underperforming yet again, leading to harsh criticism on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football from Jamie Carragher and Thierry Henry.
Thierry Henry faces backlash for criticism of Manchester United defender
The pair went through the goals from Newcastle game, highlighting the third goal and in particular Leny Yoro’s involvement.
While the goal came from a catastrophic error from Noussair Mazraoui, Carragher and Henry focused on the 18-year-old’s reaction, drawing criticism from the shows audience.
In the clip, which has been shared to YouTube, Henry said: “Look at Yoro and what he is asking for.
“I don’t know why… I don’t know what he is looking at. You’re looking at the linesman trying to see if he is going to bail you out… on what I don’t know. I don’t know if he thought there was an offside, I don’t know if he thought that someone… I don’t know.
“We all know it’s a goal. What are you looking at? I actually don’t know. I’ve never seen that before. We all know it’s a goal.”
Henry then made an exaggerated expression, and the camera zoomed in on him, while Carragher claimed he would become a meme again because of it.
Sky shared the clip to their social media accounts, which Carragher then reshared with some emojis.
Several fans have taken issue with the reaction, with one saying: “How is this on Yoro and not on Mazraoui, he panicked and had an awful touch. Doesn’t help that no one was dropping back to provide an option either.”
“I like Henry but this is nonsense,” another said. “Frozen a clip just to make a cheap joke on a young centre half. If Yoro plays for Fulham or Crystal Palace they wouldn’t dream of using this ‘analysis’.”
Another said: “Henry is very quick to dissect other managers and teams, what did he do in his managerial career thus far?”
The clip and Carragher’s repost have since been deleted from social media, while the YouTube video is still up.
This isn’t the first time Henry has criticised Yoro’s reactions, telling Le Petit Lillois when he was France’s under-21 manager: “We often talk about Leny [Yoro]. He is having an exemplary start to his career. To establish himself in Lille as he is doing… He always has some young reactions, and that is completely normal.
“It comes slowly, you make mistakes and sometimes you get embarrassed. (But) he goes on to play one match after another, he starts quite often and quite often is good. It’s really good for him.
“He is professional, he’s a good guy, well-educated. I like him. He performs well. Afterwards, there are always things to refine, but that’s completely normal. Frankly, it’s really a more than positive progression.”
Yoro’s Manchester United career got off to a rocky start after he suffered an ankle injury in pre-season, keeping him sidelined for several months. Since returning he has established himself and a key member of the United backline starting 10 of the 17 games he’s been available for.
