Michael Owen took aim at Manchester United’s centre-backs after the defeat to Tottenham and said they ‘literally do nothing’ to contribute to the team.
James Maddison’s first-half goal earned Spurs a much-needed victory on Sunday and inflicted yet one more defeat on struggling United.
England international Maddison was the one player to react after Lucas Bergvall’s shot was only parried by Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana and slotted home from yards out.
Owen was disillusioned that none of Harry Maguire, Matthijs de Ligt or Noussair Mazraoui was available to cope with the situation but said it summed up their lack of input throughout the game.
‘What frustrates me greater than anything in regards to the Manchester United team is that those centre-halves do nothing throughout the game,’ Owen said on Premier League Productions.
‘They hardly pick up any players in any respect, yet once 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 primary half when there’s no one to select up, there’s three of them literally doing nothing. They won’t push in, they won’t go and mark anybody, they only sit there.
‘It’s the simplest 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.
‘The midfield for Manchester United needs to be the toughest place to play within the Premier League and the defence needs to be the simplest because they literally mark nobody, ever.
‘They sit there doing nothing and everybody else is outnumbered everywhere in the pitch.’
While Tottenham celebrated their first win in three games following successive cup defeats to Liverpool and Aston Villa and eased among the pressure on Ange Postecoglou, United have now lost three of their past 4 games.
That dismal run of form has seen Manchester United drop to fifteenth, 12 points above the drop zone and below previous relegation-battlers Everton.
Under-fire boss Ruben Amorim said: ‘It was hard. Once we created situations and we don’t rating, it is absolutely hard.
‘Losing games and losing players, they must change their approach to each game. We’d like to give attention to the subsequent game and forget the past.
‘They’ll see me with energy to maneuver forward to arrange for the subsequent game.’
Tottenham manager Postecoglou, meanwhile, said: ‘Necessary to win today and essential game for us get our league form into some type of opportunity to enhance. I believed we played decent at times.
‘We needed to do all facets of the sport today. Pleased for all the brand new players coming in, all of them contributed, but most vital thing was to get the win today.’
Manchester United face the aforementioned Everton next weekend while Spurs return to motion against Ipswich Town.
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