Manchester United News: Michael Owen labels current Red Devils squad as the club's worst team in decades

What's the story?

Former England striker Michael Owen has tagged Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's current squad as the "worst Manchester United team for decades", adding that the quality of players available to the Norwegian manager is too poor.

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After suffering their worst-ever start to a league campaign, Manchester United currently sit at tenth place on the Premier League table, 12 points behind leaders and arch-rivals Liverpool.

The Red Devils suffered defeats against the likes of Crystal Palace and West Ham United before recently being held to a draw by Arsenal at Old Trafford.

Their disappointment continued as they were held to a 0-0 draw by AZ Alkmaar in their Europa League group stage clash on Thursday night.

The departures of big players like Romelu Lukaku, Ander Herrera and Alexis Sanchez without proper replacements upfront have also landed Solskjaer in hot water with fans, whose frustrations are increasingly growing as the season progresses.

The heart of the matter

Speaking on BT Sport, Owen stated that Solskjaer’s current squad is one of the poorest United have seen in decades, adding that he believes they are now a mid-table team.

The former Liverpool star said, as per The Daily Mail,

"Yes, I'd say (Manchester United are now a mid-table team). I don't think they'll be top six this season, personally.

"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 former Liverpool and Manchester United striker added that Solskjaer’s desire to rebuild the squad is one of the reasons why the team have been weakened.

"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?'