Martin Keown believes Jose Mourinho has ‘lost’ the players at Manchester United and insists the ‘harmony’ shown among the group at the start of the season is long gone.
The Red Devils slipped into third place on Saturday as they stuttered to a 0-0 draw against Southampton and sit 14 points behind local rivals Manchester City – who have a game in hand.
United have failed to win in their last four matches in all competitions and the Premier League title looks beyond them.
And former Arsenal defender Keown thinks that a top-four finish may be tough to achieve after Mourinho has lost the dressing room.
‘It’s going to be five years now where Manchester United have not been champions,’ he told BT Sport. ‘It’s unthinkable in the Alex Ferguson era to see where the club has now fallen to.
“I think he’s lost the players. I didn’t sense any fight from the players.” ?
Martin Keown thinks the Man Utd players aren’t performing for Jose Mourinho. Is he right? ? pic.twitter.com/2w78T8Lej1
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) December 30, 2017
People, ok [they’ll say] it’s a former Arsenal player having a pop at Manchester United but you don’t come to Manchester United and get away with that, I can’t believe today [Saturday] what a tepid performance [it was].
‘I expected much more from Manchester United today, to at least get the three points in the bag. They’ve been professional until this point in the season and now the wheels have come off.
‘The top-four is not a given for them, I think City will run away with it. Mourinho, it will be very interesting to see where he goes now with this one because he seems to have lost the players today.
‘I didn’t sense that fight from the players. It was too slow, there’s real work to do here to get back on board with the players because there didn’t seem to be the harmony here that I saw at the start of the season.
Mourinho is there posturing, he’s an angry man. His players are melting on the pitch. It’s sad to see.
‘There are good players in this Man United team and he’s not helping them as much as he might be.’
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