Manchester United make “top players look very average”, say two Premier League winners

Premier League winners Alan Shearer and Micah Richards have slammed Manchester United for being the worst they have been in decades.

With a -3 goal difference and an 8th-place finish on the horizon, United are on track for their worst Premier League finish in the competition’s history.

Their 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal over the weekend was their sixth in the league this season. Worse yet, with United failing to beat the Gunners, their record against the ‘big six’ in the league this season will finish at 1W, 3D, 6L.

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Discussing the drastic fall-off the Red Devils have seen over the last ten years, English football legend Alan Shearer slammed United as the worst he had ever seen.

“You can’t fault their effort – they tried (against Arsenal), Shearer stated on the Rest is Football podcast. “But in terms of ability, and I know they’ve got loads of injuries, but would you argue against me {for saying they are) the worst in my lifetime that I’ve seen?

‘They’ve been in decline for such a long time that it is going to take them a long time to get anywhere near. They’re miles off it.

“Even the players that you mentioned who are out injured, even if they are all fit, it’s still going to take them a long time to be challenging, to be where City are or where Liverpool have been or Arsenal. They’re a million miles away, even with those.” 

Agreeing with his co-host’s comments, Micah Richards, who won the Premier League with United’s rivals Manchester City, expressed his sympathy for the younger players in the United squad.

“I have to agree because they’re just not ready yet,” Richards said. “They’ve not got the guidance that they need.

“Consistently having to see young players deal with off-field, [and the] on-field, is the manager going to be here? There’s no long-term plan. I feel for the players because, at the moment, it’s making very good, young, top players look very average – and they’re better than that.”

This season United have relied heavily on several of the younger members of their squad to play frequently with few signs of a break.

Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Højlund, and Kobbie Mainoo have played the third, fifth, and seventh-most minutes of any outfielder in the Premier League for United this season, respectively.

Past the regular starting squad, United’s injury crisis has forced the club to fill out their bench with youth players. Against Arsenal on Sunday, six of the nine names on the Red Devils’ bench were teenagers.