Manchester United flops hit with ‘non-league’ jibe from Arsenal legend | Football

Manchester United’s defending against Aston Villa ‘wouldn’t be seen in non-league’ football, says Martin Keown, who asks if the club is ‘sleepwalking into relegation.’

The Red Devils escaped with a point after an incredible 4-4 draw at Old Trafford on Sunday after twice falling behind by two goals.

Alysson and Nicolas Jackson both scored in the opening five minutes, before Manchester United fought back to level before half-time through Bruno Fernandes and Youri Tielemans.

The second half started as badly as the first for the home team, with John McGinn and Leon Goretzka putting the Villains 4-2 up on 53 minutes.

The clock ticked past 90 minutes and that scoreline remained, before substitutes Joshua Zirkzee and Patrick Dorgu scored in injury time to compete a chaotic contest.

Michael Carrick’s team has won just one of the first 10 Premier League games this season, sitting 18th in the table with eight points accrued.

Keown saw the Manchester United defence as fearful and not at a level anywhere near the Premier League, left with the feeling that relegation is a genuine concern.

‘Are they sleepwalking into relegation? You’re 10 games in, one win. All competitions, 40 goals conceded,’ Keown said on talkSPORT.

‘Defending, you wouldn’t see that in the non-league that I saw yesterday, honestly. The goalkeeper making mistakes, he’s joining in now. I smell fear across that back four.’

Keown accepts that Manchester United showed some fight to respond at the death and also did so in their win over Roma earlier in the week, but thinks something is ‘very wrong’ with a team that continues to fall behind in matches.

‘Okay, I saw character and personality and saw it in midweek,’ said the former England defender. ‘But when you win a game like that against Roma, you have to put that in a bottle and channel all that energy from the first whistle against Villa and they were two goals down in each half within minutes.

‘Something is very wrong. The players are not motivated. You can’t keep coming back from the brink in the way that they did. Okay you’ll say that’s a bit of personality, but something is the wrong with the team and the way it defends.’

Carrick was not too down on his team’s performance overall, but insisted that it is just ‘moments’ that are costing Manchester United.

‘There was a lot happened in the game,’ he said. ‘It’s just the moments that are making it [difficult]. We’re kind of beating ourselves a little bit, with the moments that we’re giving away and goals that we’re giving away in tight clusters, that are making it a lot more difficult.

‘It’s hard enough anyway, but making it a lot more difficult than it should be. Football’s about moments. Football’s about what happens in both boxes in the end.

‘I think you take the moments that are totally avoidable, goals that we’re giving away, I actually thought we’ve played pretty well and were the better team for the most part, and I’m disappointed that we still haven’t won the game, to be truthful.

‘I thought we had most of the pressure. I thought we defended well, pressed well. We’re just giving them the moments that shape the game in some ways and then finished strongly and took something out of the game but still disappointing that we haven’t actually won it.’

He added: ‘It’s moments that are really causing us the problem. So if we can deal with that, a little bit of concentration, a little bit of confidence, a little bit of belief, a little bit of mentality, all that comes into making the right decisions

‘I’d say the last three games or so, there’s good things that give us a lot of encouragement that we can definitely win a lot of football matches with, and I feel like we should’ve won today even though we’ve still give too much away.’

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