Manchester United legend Paul Scholes believes Kobbie Mainoo’s lack of matches this season explains why he was dropped to the bench on Wednesday night – but he is surprised to see Anthony Martial not start.

United fans were shocked to see Mainoo named among the substitutes for the Champions League clash with Galatasaray after his stellar performance at Everton this weekend. The teenager made his full senior team debut against the Toffees but did not appear to be intimidated by the occasion.

While many thought he deserved a start in Turkey, Erik ten Hag has opted to recall Sofyan Amrabat, and speaking to TNT Sports pre-match, Scholes explained the reasoning behind the decision. “I was looking forward to seeing him in this atmosphere, he had a great game against Everton on Sunday in what was a hostile atmosphere which I think this is going to be as well,” he said.

“I can half understand why because he has not played a lot of football. The lad has been injured in pre-season and it was possibly only his third game back on Sunday, a couple of reserve team games, so you can understand why he has gone for a little bit of experience in Amrabat.

“He will have Mainoo on the bench. He is not scared to go to the bench; at half-time he has changed his team a lot.”

Scholes may understand the decision to drop Mainoo but he quizzed the call to drop Anthony Martial and recall Antony who has had a poor season to date. The former midfielder added: “I would have liked to see Martial play. We saw on Sunday he is clinical.

“United have to play on the counterattack with the type of team he has got. They cannot control games so they have to rely on their forward players.

“Now, Antony has not been great, not played a lot either so I would have liked to see Martial come into that front three with [Alejandro] Garnacho and [Rasmus] Hojlund.”