Manchester United legend Dwight Yorke says the team is ‘a million miles away’ from winning the title and in many ways the worst it has been since the Premier League began in 1992.
The Red Devils actually had a good weekend as they beat Southampton 3-0 at St Mary’s taking their points tally to six from their first four league outings.
However, defeats to Brighton and Liverpool mean they are already off the pace and doubts remain over their ability to make the top four, let alone muster up a title challenge.
Yorke certainly does not see Erik ten Hag’s side getting close to the top of the table and feels that, despite FA Cup success last season, they are still producing football as bad as any they have played in 32 years.
‘We are a million miles away from winning the Premier League,’ Yorke told beIN Sports. ‘When talking about the current manager, this was a person to take us forward, and we thought after the first season this was the guy.
‘What has happened, yes we have managed to win the FA Cup last season, but where we are doesn’t mean that we’re a good team after winning the cup. Winning a cup is great, we’ve got to keep the trophy cabinet ticking over.
‘But where we are as a football club, the identity in terms of how we play, where we finish, goals conceded, number of goals that we’ve scored is the worst in our history since the Premier League started in 1992.’
Ten Hag has, understandably, defended his team’s performances even in defeat so far this season, insisting his side is capable of picking up more silverware after League Cup and FA Cup success over the last two seasons.
After the resounding 3-0 home loss to Liverpool he said: ‘It is the third game of the season. I have had to explain this so many times. We have to build a new team. We will be fine but it is clear we have to improve.
‘At the end of the season I am quite confident we will have a big chance to lift another trophy.’
The Dutchman was pleased with the better control his team exerted over Southampton at the weekend, although they still required a penalty save from Andre Onana early on.
‘We have to win every game and we did today,’ said Ten Hag on Saturday. ‘Sometimes you have to find a way to win. In the first minutes of the game, we had some problems but after Andre stopped the penalty and the goal by Matthjis de Ligt, the game was all ours.’
