Former Republic of Ireland striker Tony Cascarino has given a scathing verdict of Manchester United, insisting they are way behind their rivals and will not win the Premier League under Jose Mourinho.
Cascarino, who played more than 600 league games in a professional career spanning almost twenty years, believes Mourinho is restricting the young players at United. He also says the club do not have enough quality in attack to challenge for the title.
United are currently on a 20-match unbeaten run in the league, although twelve of those have been draws. They are currently four points off the top four, with nine games of the campaign remaining.
The 88-cap Republic of Ireland international told Jim White on Talksport:
“I can’t see them winning the league under Mourinho. I can’t see it, I think they’re so far behind. I’m looking at a team that are struggling like hell.
“I played against Man United a couple of times, got beat 5-1 and 4-0, you knew exactly how it was going to go, it was a tin hat job, you were going to get a battering. I now see teams going there and they can be quite comfortable at Old Trafford.
“It isn’t just this season, this goes back to when Fergie left. It’s the ghost of Fergie – they can’t find goals of a United standard on a regular basis.
“Fergie set the benchmark, his teams had nearly three goals per game and in his last year, when they won the Premier League title, they had 86 goals. United are so far away from that level of goalscoring.
“Money is not an issue for them, they’ve spent over £300m over the last couple of years improving their team, but they’re not really any closer.
“You look at Manchester City alone – they’ve got the finances to match United but they’ve also got better players. Then you look at Tottenham, they’re in great shape, and there’s no doubting Chelsea’s quality.”
Cascarino also referred to the many talented youngsters at United and how they haven’t built on their potential under Mourinho. He picked out Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford as prime examples of this, saying:
“Rashford and Martial – they are two top quality young players who should have improved under Jose, but they haven’t, they’ve gone backwards.
“Martial was one of the club’s most exciting players last year, and he’s gone from that to being in and out of the team this season. Why?
It would seem the former Aston Villa and Chelsea star blames the manager for the players going ‘backwards’.
However, Jamie Carragher recently insisted the onus is on the players to take the chances they’re given. The former Liverpool defender also said they should be embarrassed by the fact they need to rely on Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Before Tuesday night’s draw with Everton, Carragher told Sky Sports News (via Metro) that:
‘There’s talk of [Antoine] Griezmann coming in, but Martial was a lot of money.
“Rashford, certainly was last year the wonderkid, and I think he’ll be a fantastic player. [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan is there – we’re talking about top-level players.
“It is strange that they are having these major problems, without Zlatan, that personality, that presence, I think it’s a bit embarrassing for those players who are playing that they feel they need a 35-year-old centre-forward.
“When you play at that top level and you get a chance, you’ve got to take it.”
Peter Reynolds, Pundit Arena
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