The clairvoyant Paul Scholes was right AGAIN - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's switch to a back three can’t cure all of Man United’s ills and once more they were reliant on Cristiano Ronaldo to bail them out of trouble By Chris Wheeler for the Daily Mail Published: 22:24 GMT, 2 November 2021 | Updated: 22:25 GMT, 2 November 2021 Viewcomments Paul Scholes brought many talents to the football pitch as a player, but it’s fair to say clairvoyance wasn’t one of them. As a pundit, on the other hand, Scholes is proving rather prophetic. After Manchester United’s comeback win over Atalanta a fortnight ago, he successfully predicted that his old club would be four goals behind by half-time if they played with the same abandon against Liverpool. Scholes was at it again on Tuesday night as he discussed the merits of United’s altogether more cautious, compact 3-4-1-2 formation which worked so well at Tottenham on Saturday and looked like becoming the new norm – well, at least while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer tries to steady the ship and keep himself at the helm. Paul Scholes is proving rather prophetic in the pundit's hotseat talking about Manchester Utd United were once again reliant on Cristiano Ronaldo's brilliance to save a point at Atalanta ‘We can’t really get carried away because Tottenham clearly weren’t right, they were in a little bit of a mess,’ Scholes told BT Sport. ‘It’s a tougher game and we’ll see what United are made of.’ Having hit on a winning formula at Spurs, you could hardly blame Solskjaer for sticking with it at the Gewiss Stadium. He had seen Liverpool and Leicester rip United apart and tear his pressing game asunder. Atalanta did the same in the first half at Old Trafford, going two goals ahead inside 28 minutes. But it’s not a natural fit for the squad he has built. The bench in Bergamo was stacked with unused attackers including Edinson Cavani, Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata. And, as Scholes feared, this was a much tougher examination of Solskjaer’s Plan B. Harry Maguire once again captained United in a back three formation after the weekend win United were a goal down inside 12 minutes and the strategy had to be abandoned altogether before half-time when Greenwood replaced Raphael Varane who limped off on only his second appearance since returning from a groin injury. Solskjaer reverted to 4-2-3-1 and an equaliser followed eight minutes later. He was already without Victor Lindelof through injury, meaning Eric Bailly came in for only second appearance of the season and his first in the Champions League since the famous win over Paris Saint-Germain in March 2019 when he was subbed in the first half. The combative Ivorian performed excellent on this occasion, typically stopping two efforts from Duvan Zapata with his face in the first half. The same could not be said of captain Harry Maguire or Paul Pogba, who also returned to the line-up in Italy but only, one suspects, because he is suspended for the Manchester derby on Saturday and Fred needed a break. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has to decide whether three centre backs will do the job against City As long as he has enough fit central defenders to do the job, Solskjaer may opt for a back-three against Manchester City as well. It’s worked for him before in big matches. But the lesson on Tuesday night was that it clearly can’t cure all of United’s ills. They still conceded goals and Atalanta sat deep, making it hard to hit them on the break. Once again, United were reliant on Cristiano Ronaldo to bail them out of trouble with another late goal. But you didn’t have to be a clairvoyant to predict that. Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility