Former England striker and Manchester United player Michael Owen said that the current Manchester United team, under manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, is the worst team for decades in the club’s history.

“Yes, I’d say (Manchester United are now a mid-table team). I don’t think they’ll be top six this season, personally,” Owen said on BT Sport as quoted by Goal.

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“Top half I think is likely, but just the fact we’re having this conversation is the worry, isn’t it?” he said, adding, “This has got to be the worst Manchester United team for decades, hasn’t it? Since before Sir Alex Ferguson took over.”

“It’s been happening for a few years. For maybe five, six, seven, eight years you’ve been thinking ‘it can’t get any worse’, and it has. The point that I’d like to make is that in many ways, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has knowingly weakened his team. Getting rid of people like (Romelu) Lukaku, (Ander) Herrera, (Matteo) Darmian, (Alexis) Sanchez, (Chris) Smalling. He knows he could improve his team with those players, but I think he’s taken the view that you’ve got to take a couple of steps backwards to then move forwards.

“He’s done that on purpose thinking, ‘right, we’ve just got to rid ourselves of players that, OK they’re probably better than what we’ve got, but are they going to take us to where we want to go?’

“That answer is no, then you’re almost starting from scratch and I think that’s what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has done,” said the 39-year-old veteran, who played for the Red Devils from 2009 to 2012.

Notably, AZ Alkmaar on Thursday held Manchester United to a goalless draw at Kyocera Stadium in the Europa League. The Red Devils travel north to face Newcastle United next in domestic action on Sunday.