Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson criticised his own players for failing to utilise Robin van Persie’s talents after they crashed to a surprise 1-0 defeat at Everton.
Van Persie made his eagerly-anticipated United debut as a 68th minute substitute with his new side trailing to Marouane Fellaini’s second-half goal at Goodison Park on Monday.
But the Dutch striker, who completed a STG24 million ($A36.32 million) move from Arsenal on Friday, was unable to inspire Ferguson’s team, who lost their opening game of the Premier League season for the first time since 2004.
“We played around him too much, we didn’t show enough penetration and with Robin in your team you know you want to use his ability against centre-backs in situations he is very good at. But we didn’t use him enough,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson explained his decision to start van Persie on the substitutes bench by insisting the striker hadn’t played enough during pre-season.
“He’s not played any football, given the expectation of him playing at any given moment, it was better for him to start on the substitutes’ bench,” he said.
“He’s a great player and there is always the temptation to play him when you have a player like that. But the sensible route is to start him on the bench.”
United were lacklustre for long spells and it required a string of fine stops by Spanish keeper David De Gea to prevent Everton from winning by a bigger margin.
Midfielder Leon Osman was outstanding for the hosts, but Ferguson admitted his players failed to handle goalscorer Fellaini.
“He is a handful, he is a big, tall, gangly lad and they just lumped the ball forward to him, that’s all they did,” he added.
“They worked from that base all the time and they got a goal from him, so it’s justified.”
Everton manager David Moyes saluted his players after a fine victory, but refused to get carried away after Everton won an opening game of a season for the first time since 2007.
“It was all about Manchester United prior to this game and what they have been doing, and I thought that people had called that wrong because Everton are a tough team to beat at Goodison Park,” he said.
