Jamie Carragher said "too much has been made" of the apparent downfall of Manchester United, and has backed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to get the Red Devils into the top four this season.
Poor form at the end of the last campaign cost United a place in the Champions League for this season, as the initial bounce enjoyed by Solskjaer following his temporary appointment after the sacking of Jose Mourinho faded away.
United start this Premier League season at home to Frank Lampard's Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday, and Liverpool legend Carragher says he expects the Red Devils to defy the critics this season.
“Too much has been made of Manchester United, this ‘demise’, really,” he told Pundit Arena in Ireland.
"I’m not talking about the last five or six years, I’m talking about last season. I think if you look at it over Solskjaer’s time they were still the third-best team in the league.
“So, I don’t think we should forget that. It wasn’t great, what happened at the end of the season. (United drew with Huddersfield and lost to Cardiff , two teams already relegated).
“I think everyone just wanted the season to finish when they went out of the Champions League and there was no chance of getting top four. I think they all would have liked to go home, and they played like that. Which is not great, I get that.
"But they’re not as bad as that, what we saw, those last three or four games.”
“You think of the games in the Champions League, the Paris Saint-Germain game, Solskjaer finishing third over that period. Now he’s got a full pre-season, I think Manchester United will finish in the top four."
