Man Utd stars ‘under-aroused’ and ‘over-rewarded’, says Jordan
Manchester United are an “under-aroused”, “poor, poor side” that have no chance of finishing in the top four this season, according to Simon Jordan.
United have endured a tough season and currently sit seventh in the Premier League, three points off Tottenham in fourth.
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But United’s form compared to their rivals chasing Champions League qualification suggests a fourth-placed finish will be a tall order.
Interim boss Ralf Rangnick has borne the brunt of the criticism for United’s displays, but Jordan claims the “laughable” reign of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was more the problem, as well as the “lightweight” mentality of the players.
Jordan said on talkSPORT: “Poor managers for three years – you’ve allowed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to run the football club for three years which is almost laughable.
“Prior to that you had Jose Mourinho in, and Mourinho won you things, but the culture of Mourinho attracts a certain reputation and rapport, and because he decided to go very dark, you departed from that and you’ve left three years of attrition.
“And in those three years, the other two clubs you’re supposedly chasing down, Liverpool and Man City, have continued to evolve and you’ve regressed, so the gap has got wider.
“United players are lightweight mentally, they’re over-rewarded, over-recognised and not over-performing.
“They’re not a very good side are they?
“And of course we can make the argument as Gary Neville has made about the lack of coaching.
“I had genuinely thought that Rangnick would come in and wake a few of these players up, because they do need waking up.
“But he hasn’t and I think he’s added to the state of flux that exists in that football club that no one quite knows where they’re going, what they should and should not be doing, and people are being allowed to get away with a low level performance.
“They’re an under-aroused, under-motivated football team that is coasting through the rest of the season.
“And I had really wanted to make a case, to back up my own case of the idea that they would finish fourth, but I cannot see a parallel universe where they’re going to finish fourth.
“They’re a poor, poor side.
“They have nothing about them, they are easy to play against, they don’t have any particular energy or zest, or any movement off the ball.
“I watched them against Leicester, they’re just a very average side with a splattering of highly-paid footballers that on paper have big reputations but when it comes to being on the pitch, they’re nowhere near it.
“And there’s going to have to be a massive change of direction and culture of the players they recruit.
“The DNA of those players to fit the fabric of what a good player really looks like in reality rather than what a good player looks like on the piece of paper that you’re studying, what they once upon a time did.
“United have a big sea change.”
