I grew up watching Paul Scholes, so I’ve heard everybody criticising his tackling. I’ve even done it myself. Anyway, it’s hard to defend him in this situation because he would swipe at shinbones while picking up yellow cards as if they were collective postal stamps.
Since he retired, Scholes has sat down and told a few tales about his marvelous career. He now explains why he jumped into so many careless challenges.
The Ginger Prince told BBC Radio Five Live: “Of course I can tackle. There’s plenty of evidence of being able to tackle.
“I was just getting people back. If someone got me early in the game it was always in the back of my mind that I needed to get them back.
“I didn’t always do it on purpose, some of it was just bad timing, I suppose.
“But I think throughout my career the record wasn’t that bad, there were not that many yellow cards. Well, I suppose a few yellow cards, but not many sendings-off. But I think towards the end every time I made one tackle I got booked, because of my reputation I suppose.”
