INEOS tipped to sit Ruben Amorim down for angry Man Utd talks after ‘ridiculous’ comments | Football | Sport

Jamie Carragher insists it is “bizarre and ridiculous” for Ruben Amorim to label his current Manchester United squad one of the worst teams in the club’s history – and believes the club’s owners will now give the manager a stern talking to.

United sit 13th in the Premier League table after 22 games following Sunday’s loss to Brighton. The Red Devils’ 3-1 defeat to the Seagulls was their 10th in the league this season.

Since replacing Erik ten Hag in November, the Portuguese coach has only won five of 15 games, losing seven. And Amorim, 39, said at the weekend: “I know we can succeed, but we need to survive this moment. Because I’m not naive and I know that we need to survive now.

“We are being the worst team, maybe, in the history of Manchester United. I know that you want headlines, but I’m saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that.”

But Carragher, speaking on Sky Sports Monday Night Football, cannot believe Amorim would be so brazenly critical of his own squad and believes United’s owners – INEOS and the Glazers – won’t be happy.

Ex-Liverpool defender Carragher said on MNF: “I don’t know what he’s trying to do. For the manager to make a statement like that, I think the powers that be above him will have a very strong word with him.

“You don’t speak like that as a Manchester United manager. They’re in a poor situation already, you don’t pour petrol on the flames.”

He earlier told Mike Wedderburn for Sky Sports News: “I don’t know Manchester United‘s history as well as Gary Neville, but I must say I think it was one of the most bizarre and ridiculous things I’ve ever heard a manager say.

“I mean, why you would make a comment like that? That’s the type of comment a pundit would make, someone in my position. I don’t know what he gains from that. We all know it’s a poor Manchester United team.

“We’ll probably cover them on the show later because of what the manager said. Because before that, they’d lost another game at home to Brighton. They’ve done that in the last couple of years anyway.

“We know it’s a tough season. We know it’s a poor team. He’s just blew something up. That will be a quote that will follow him for the rest of the season. And when he said that, I think he said to the journalists there, ‘wait and I’ll give you a headline’, why you would want to do that as a manager, I will never know.

“It certainly doesn’t help the players confidence-wise, going forward, or maybe belief-wise. I’ve not got much sympathy for the players in that Manchester United dressing room. They’ve been a joke for a few years now and then.

“I think a few weeks ago, after they played Liverpool, there was an interview with Lissandro Martinez where he was talking about the mentality and tapping his head. ‘That was different today.’ I nearly burst out laughing when I saw that, to be honest.

“The amount of times Manchester United have basically thrown the towel in during bad performances over the last four or five years. So I’ve got not much sympathy in a dressing room for the players.

“But what I would say is, from the manager’s point of view, how can he then go into the dressing room between now and the end of the season and continually try and build them up and give them belief in a team, that they can go and beat the opposition, whoever they come up against, if he said they are the worst team in Manchester United‘s history, or certainly one of them.

“So at no point can I see what he’s going to gain from that.”

United will look to get back to winning ways against Rangers in the Europa League on Thursday knowing victory is vital to their chances of finishing in the top eight of the European tournament’s league table.