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Ex-Manchester United forward Michael Owen has urged his former club to end their association with manager Erik ten Hag in order to improve their fortunes on the pitch.
Last season, United endured arguably their worst-ever Premier League season under Ten Hag as they finished in eighth position.
It looked like the Dutchman was assured of a sack but he masterminded a brilliant 2-1 win in the FA Cup final against Manchester City to afford himself a bit more time to turn the situation around.
However, just three games into the new campaign, Ten Hag is already under pressure once again, especially after he and his players fell to a humiliating 3-0 loss at the hands of bitter rivals Liverpool on Sunday.
United were dominated from the start and never got into the game as Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah found the back of the net to hand the Red Devils their second consecutive top-flight defeat of 2024/25.
Beyond the result, the most concerning this was how clueless and bereft of ideas United looked.
Speaking to TVSporten (via DAZN), Owen insisted that United would be best served by parting ways with Ten Hag.
The Englishman said, “If you want to see Manchester United back on the right path, then they need an upturn in form from the last two seasons. They squirmed into fourth the year before, which was unbelievable looking back. From what they were last year to the start of this year, they’ve stuck with the same manager and the signings they’ve made might not be enough to turn the corner.”
“That’s why I can’t see them in the top four. I think Man Utd are going to need a change of manager before they have an upturn in fortunes.”
“They possibly got lucky to get three points at home in the first game. But whichever way you look at it, you know, there’s not enough change. I’m still of the opinion that there’s a little bit that needs to change at Manchester United before they can start progressing.”
Owen tipped club legend Cristiano Ronaldo to potentially become United manager one day.
“It’ll be fascinating to see. Just looking from the outside, it feels like he might want to be at the side of the pitch managing Portugal.”
“He looks like a coach, he looks like he wants to coach, so he might want to go down that route. The Portugal job, probably in the future, might have his name on it. You never know. Of course, if he does well, then great teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid would then be looking at him.”
United return to action on September 14 when they travel to the St Marry’s to meet Southampton.
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2024-09-03 18:30:10
