Steven Gerrard has written off Andrey Santos after 83 minutes of Premier League football for Manchester United.
Santos joined United in a £50m move this summer from Chelsea, where he was a bit-part player last season having impressed on loan at Strasbourg.
The 22-year-old was part of a midfield rebuild at Old Trafford which also saw Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba join the club for £35m and £65m respectively.
Baleba impressed off the bench on his debut for United against Tottenham on Saturday, having missed the start of the season through injury, while Tielemans has looked suspect at best alongside Kobbie Mainoo.
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Santos hasn’t started in the Premier League since the opening day defeat to Hull City, with his only other start this season coming in the 3-2 Carabao Cup loss to Brighton.
And Gerrard has seen enough to know that “he’s not a Manchester United player”.
“I’m not sure Andrey Santos was the right signing for Manchester United at £50m,” Gerrard said on The Overlap.
“I just think to play in Manchester United’s midfield every single game, every single weekend, you’d expect to compete for the Premier League and the Champions League.
“Forget the other cups, because obviously you try and win them as you go along, but the priority is the league and the Champions League. That has been for decades, from whatever I’ve known and competed against United.
“Your midfield players have got to be world-class, they’ve got to be world-class, they’ve got to be consistently world-class, because when it comes to the business end, you’re going to be competing against, if you go to Arsenal, Declan Rice, for example, he’s creeping into that level, and Martin Odegaard, they’re world-level players.
“Liverpool, maybe not right now, but when they were challenging for the league, Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum, that level of player.
“Manchester United need world-class midfielders, potential ones, or ones that are already ready to play at that level.
“I think (Kobbie) Mainoo’s a really good player. He’s nowhere near that yet, nowhere near world level yet.
“Santos, he’s a good player, but for me, he’s not a Manchester United player. To be consistent week in, week out and affect games, when it comes down to when the prizes are given out, or Champions League semi-finals, quarter-finals, I think he’d be found out against PSG. I think he’d be found out against the Real Madrid midfield, the Barcelona midfield.
“I think he’s a bit short, in my opinion. (Youri) Tielemans is a good Premier League-level player. Bruno Fernandes is the one that’s world-class, but he’s alone in there in terms of that level.
“I played against Michael Carrick, who was underestimated. He was a top, top player. Roy Keane was world-class. Paul Scholes was world-class. Ryan Giggs used to play in there sometimes, world-class. David Beckham could come in there, world-class. Wayne Rooney coming to overload the midfield, world-class.
“Manchester United’s midfield is way off that level. It’s way off that level.”
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