Michael Owen has hit out at three Man Utd players for “sleeping” as Tottenham beat the Red Devils 1-0 in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Red Devils’ awful form in the Premier League under Ruben Amorim continued as Man Utd were undone by James Maddison’s first-half strike in a narrow loss.
Maddison reacted well to a loose ball after Man Utd goalkeeper Andre Onana parried a Lucas Bergvall shot back into play and the Tottenham midfielder knocked the ball in from close range.
And Owen was far from impressed by Harry Maguire, Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs De Ligt with the former Man Utd and Liverpool striker insisting one of them should have been there to pick up the pieces.
Owen said on Premier League Productions: “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.
“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.
“It’s the easiest position on the pitch in theory because they’re asked to do nothing. The manager plays so many defenders and none of them are picking anyone up.
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“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.
“They sit there doing nothing and everyone else is outnumbered all over the pitch.”
Their latest defeat leaves Man Utd in 15th position with only 13 matches of the season left to play with Sunday’s opponents Tottenham jumping above them in the table.
Amorim has now won just four of his first 15 Premier League matches in charge of Man Utd and it’s clear that his players are struggling to adapt to his playing style.
The Portuguese head coach has urged his players to “forget the past” and look forward to their next match against Everton – who are now above them in the table – on Saturday.
Amorim said: “It was hard. When we created situations and we don’t score, it is really hard.
“Losing games and losing players, they have to change their approach to every game. We need to focus on the next game and forget the past.
“They will see me with energy to move forward to prepare for the next game.”
