Michael Owen believes that only three of the Manchester United XI that lost to Newcastle United are good enough to play for the club.
The Reds suffered their third Premier League defeat in only eight games against the Magpies, leaving them 12th in the Premier League table.
With Luke Shaw, Victor Lindelof, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial all out through injury, it was a much-changed team that took to the field at St James' Park.
Having allowed the likes of Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini, Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku to leave in the last six months, without very few replacements coming in, United's squad is stretched with their current injury issues.
However, former United striker Owen has issued his damning verdict that only three of the XI were good enough to be turning out for a club of United's standing.
“They haven’t got the players, they’re simply not good [enough],” Owen told Premier League Productions.
“That first XI, I’d say there are three players, maybe four, that should be Manchester United players for the future.
“If you’re looking to build that club back to where it was, then there’s probably three or four in that first team.
“Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in his interview afterwards, I was almost slipping down my chair, it was almost like he doesn’t know what’s going wrong, let’s say.
"We can all speculate as to what’s going wrong. He can look over his shoulder and think ‘down the road you’ve got Jurgen Klopp, you’ve got [Pep] Guardiola - these are managers that are actually improving their players, they’re getting the best out of their squad’.
“I’m looking at that [United] squad and, if anything, the players are getting worse.
“They’re devaluing, as a squad they’re getting worse. Where is it all going to end?”
