FORMER ENGLAND STRIKER Michael Owen has labelled the Red Devils’ squad “the worst Manchester United team for decades”.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has overseen the departures of high-profile names such as Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez and Ander Herrera, while investing heavily in young, British talent.
However, the Red Devils have struggled at the start of the campaign and find themselves 10th in the Premier League table, 12 points off league leaders Liverpool.
And Owen believes the squad is one of the poorest the club has seen in a long time, owing partly to Solskjaer’s efforts to rebuild the side.
“Yes, I’d say [Manchester United are now a mid-table team]. I don’t think they’ll be top six this season, personally,” Owen said on BT Sport.
“Top half I think is likely, but just the fact we’re having this conversation is the worry, isn’t it?
“This has got to be the worst Manchester United team for decades, hasn’t it? Since before Sir Alex Ferguson took over.
“It’s been happening for a few years. For maybe five, six, seven, eight years you’ve been thinking ‘it can’t get any worse’, and it has.
“The point that I’d like to make is that in many ways, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has knowingly weakened his team.
“Getting rid of people like Lukaku, Herrera, [Matteo] Darmian, Sanchez, [Chris] Smalling. He knows he could improve his team with those players, but I think he’s taken the view that you’ve got to take a couple of steps backwards to then move forwards.
“He’s done that on purpose thinking, ‘right, we’ve just got to rid ourselves of players that, OK they’re probably better than what we’ve got, but are they going to take us to where we want to go?’
“That answer is no, then you’re almost starting from scratch and I think that’s what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has done.”
Manchester United drew 0-0 away from home against AZ in the Europa League on Thursday, and travel north to face Newcastle United in domestic action on Sunday.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
Never mind Monday morning how do you stay awake during the game ?
Is it only on Sky?
Why thumbs down??? Just wondering if BBC or C4 etc are carrying the game?
It’s on BBC2 from 11pm
Thanks Catriona.
Don’t mind them. I only found out 2 years ago it was on bbc. Always assumed that it was only on Sky. A fair assumption too I think :-)
Or you could take Monday off!
How am I suppose to do mocks next week with 6nations and the super bowl on.????????
If your in Limerick Showtime Cinema is showing it for 15e and I think you get a beer, hotdog and popcorn for that and can bring your own beer too :)
Get a pair of Homer Simpson jury duty glasses for work. Can have a lovely nap then
Haha!!
I’m San Francisco-born, and don’t give a rat’s hiney about the business of American football. It’s a business. The teams and players care not one heartbeat about the fans, except as sources of revenue.
It was such a joy to attend the Munster hurling finals and watch a real sport being played by real sportsmen and to see real fans instead of drunken lunatics assaulting each other while watching steroid-crazed egomaniacs. A sporting epiphany it was.
What sport isn’t there to make money?
It’s ok not to like something, you don’t have to watch it. At the same time, keep your stupid opinions to yourself. That way you can hide your idiocy.
Gaelic Football & Hurling Billie. Playing for the pride of your home county ( with rare exceptions) & in most cases taking financial loss for the honour of doing it. I love professional sports especially rugby & AFL but there is something really special about Gaelic Games.
Thanks for the strategy tips, Billie. Don’t know what I did without you all my life.
Think you’ve gotten it all wrong, the whole purpose of the comments section here is for ppl to voice their opinions. Keep your “keep your stupid opinions to yourself” to yourself @BillieHetfield.
If you limit yourself to add breaks for social media thats about 90% of the game :-)
and the Americans say soccer is boring…
It’s not boring, your brain is just too small to understand what’s going on.
I won’t force you to watch, I promise.
I understand what is going on and it is very very boring. Enjoy staying up all night to watch that tripe. Worst sport ever invented in my opinion.
I swapped work on Monday for next saturday so I have a nice lie in and I just can not wait any longer bring on the Super Bowl !!!!
Just record it on sky plus keep clear of result and watch after work job done. Lets be fair not many people are gonna be running around work roaring and shouting bout the game so chances are great you’ll miss result.
never works!
Can’t wait.
I bet 49ers for the Super Bowl in October.
LOL!
- Bags under the eyes: check!
- The caffeine overdose: check!
- Wearing odd shoes: … … check :(
Sleep in the afternoon is what has gotten me through the playoffs to watch the Saturday games live. Set the alarm for before the game. Wake up, and OD on coffee until the shakes set in and you can feel your heart squelching on every beat.
Or…you could tape it and watch it the next day at a reasonable hour
Risky strategy. Twitter can be a bollocks for this.
Next day off work is the best plan I think.
true but unless its on during the day its rather pointless. After 2am just go to bed you make bad decisions after 2am :D
@john have you been watching how I met your mother
Yes yes I have it what happens when you only got basic UPC
You record it on the UPC box and watch it when you get home from work.