Michael Owen has urged Manchester United to sack Erik ten Hag and appoint Steve McClaren as interim manager until the end of the season.
United delivered another woeful performance under Ten Hag on Monday evening as they were hammered 4-0 by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Speculation continues to mount over Ten Hag’s future at Old Trafford, although after the loss to Palace the Dutchman was adamant that he remains the right man to lead the team next season.
But Owen believes United need to make a ‘radical’ change to salvage their season and believes McClaren, who is currently Ten Hag’s assistant, would be able to improve the team for the remaining three Premier League games against Arsenal, Newcastle United and Brighton, plus the FA Cup final against Manchester City on May 25.
‘I’ve said it for a long time that Ten Hag is not the right man for this job, I’ve been saying it for ages and ages,’ Owen told Premier League Productions after United’s defeat to Palace.
‘He cannot, simply cannot, manage the team next season.
‘I almost wonder now, they’ve got a cup final and they’ve got a few important games that could mean European football next year or not.
‘At some point you’ve got to make a decision, they’re going to get absolutely hammered by Manchester City [in the FA Cup final], they’re going to get annihilated, in fact, Arsenal will smash them to bits at Old Trafford, Newcastle will probably beat them and I wouldn’t even fancy them going to Brighton either. They might not get anything out of the rest of the season, playing like that.
‘I just wonder there’s just so much at stake, even if it’s only for four games, I wonder whether the board might just have to try to do something here and now and be quite radical about it.
‘He cannot, simply cannot, manage this team next season. He’s not good enough. I’ve thought it for ages, and he’s just not good enough to manage Manchester United.’
Meanwhile, Paul Scholes, who was working as a pundit alongside Owen, described United’s defeat to Palace as ‘the final nail in the coffin’ for Ten Hag’s reign at Old Trafford.
‘It’s been a difficult one, I know Michael’s saying he’s felt it for a long time and the signs have been there that it’s going to be difficult for him to do it next year,’ said Scholes.
‘But tonight felt like the final nail in the coffin, really.
‘There was a lack of know-how from the team, a lack of effort which is the big disappointing thing.
‘It felt like the end. If it is the end, I’m not sure what’s out there at the minute.
‘I’ve felt he might get another year and work for a club that has calmed down a little bit by the new owners but it just doesn’t feel like it now.
‘Who was there to replace him? There wasn’t really anybody. Now with Thomas Tuchel saying he’s leaving Bayern Munich, I think that doesn’t create a bigger problem for him because I think the problems are there anyway, it’s quite plain to see it feels like borrowed time.
‘Watching that performance tonight, sometimes you get those performances where you think, ‘this is the end’. That almost felt like it. I remember Ole Gunnar [Solskjaer] at Watford away. It felt very similar to me, it just fell at the end.
‘But what do you do for the last four games? You’ve got a big cup final. You can’t see where a win is coming from. They can’t beat Burnley at home.’
When it was suggested that Steve McClaren, Ten Hag’s assistant, could take over, Owen replied: ‘They’ve got to try something different. Anything. Yes.’
Owen also raised doubt over McClaren’s current impact on the United team within Ten Hag’s coaching set-up.
‘We’ve played under Steve McClaren, he’s coached us, there’s no way that his fingerprints are anywhere near that team,’ Owen said.
‘He is a brilliant, brilliant coach and that team is not being coached at all. No way Steve McClaren is the first-team coach.’
Scholes then added: ‘It suggests to me he’s not touching that team. The manager [Ten Hag] must not be letting him touch that team, I don’t think.
‘Everyone thinks we were a great team that attacked everyone and went at people, sometimes we played against better teams and Steve McClaren put better sessions on to make sure you stopped other teams, getting the distances right, getting your angles right, especially in centre midfield, across all midfield.
‘And he has got no impression on that [Ten Hag] team whatsoever. He’s the best coach I ever had.’
Owen then said of McClaren: ‘He’s a brilliant, brilliant coach. There’s no way on earth he’s got anything to do with coaching that team. It’s impossible. Because that team is absolutely clueless, right the way through it. There’s not one thing I think works in that team. I don’t rate anything about it.
‘Steve McClaren is a top operator and I can only think he’s there and there’s other people are coaching the first team and he’s just a bystander.’
Asked if he would be happy to see McClaren manage United for their final four games, Owen said: ‘For four games, yeah… anything.
‘They’re going to get smashed out of the ball park by every team playing like that today.
‘Manchester City are going to demoralise them at Wembley in front of millions of people, it’s just embarrassing how they’re playing, something’s got to change, I know it’s going to change in the summer but I think it’s got to change now. There’s European football next year, this is a trophy.’
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