MAN U ARE SLEEPING: Owen hits out at Red Devils defence

FORMER Manchester United striker Michael Owen says the Red Devils’ defence are aan ‘ie slaap and that’s the most frustrating thing about the Old Trafford club at the moment.

The Theatre of Dreams has turned into a nightmare of late, with coach Ruben Amorim’s span down in 15th on the log after 25 league games.

This after they went down 2-1 to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday night, with Amorim, who has now lost eight of his 14 league matches in charge at the club, saying: “What you see guys and what you discuss every week, I also see. I have a lot of problems, my job is so, so hard here. But I stick with my beliefs.

“You grow and you learn a lot of things. We just need to face it and not run away, that is my feeling... ”

Owen, though, tells Premier League Productions: “What frustrates me more than anything about the Manchester United team is that those centre-halves do nothing during the game.

“They hardly pick up any players at all, yet when you ask them to do one job – stop the guy who’s shooting – they’re sleeping at that as well.

“We’ve seen so many clips in the first half when there’s nobody to pick up, there’s three of them literally doing nothing. They won’t push in, they won’t go and mark anybody, they just sit there.

“It’s the easiest position on the pitch in theory because they’re asked to do nothing. The manager plays so many defenders and none of them are picking anyone up.”

United next face Everton on Saturday.