Former Manchester United striker Michael Owen has torn into the club’s defenders after yesterday’s loss to Tottenham Hotspur.
The Red Devils’ defence of Harry Maguire, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui was breached after just 13 minutes when James Maddison put Spurs in front to give them a 1-0 lead they would not relinquish.
United switched to a back three in November when Ruben Amorim was named manager of the club but it has hardly helped the team look any better defensively.
While 35 goals conceded in 25 league matches compares quite well to the majority of the league, it is the team’s inability to hold out defensively in key moments that has frustrated numerous fans and pundits this season.
Speaking to Premier League Productions (via The Metro), Owen revealed what bothered him most about his former side.
The pundit claimed, “what frustrates me more than anything about the Manchester United team is that those centre-halves do nothing during the game.”
“They hardly pick up any players at all, yet when you ask them to do one job – stop the guy who’s shooting – they’re sleeping at that as well.”
The former striker asserted that this was not an issue for just the goal but it was prevalent throughout the entire game.
“We’ve seen so many clips in the first half when there’s nobody to pick up, there’s three of them literally doing nothing. They won’t push in, they won’t go and mark anybody, they just sit there.”
Owen stated that he did not understand the need to play so many defenders when they seemingly don’t mark anybody and that the position must be the “easiest position on the pitch.”
In contrast, the 45 year old stated that, “the midfield for Manchester United has to be the hardest place to play in the Premier League and the defence should be the easiest because they literally mark no one, ever.”
He argued that the imbalance caused by the sheer number of defenders means they are consistently outnumbered over the rest of the pitch.
Featured image Alex Pantling via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
