Michael Owen: Man Utd must not sack Michael Carrick yet

Michael Owen believes Manchester United should not be considering Michael Carrick's future despite a poor start to the Premier League season. Speaking exclusively to Mirror Football as an ambassador for Casino.org, Owen said the 45-year-old deserves more time after guiding the Red Devils to a third-place finish last term.

Slow start and VAR frustrations

United currently sit 13th in the table with one win, three draws and two losses. Saturday's 1-1 draw against Roberto De Zerbi's winless Tottenham Hotspur added to the frustration, with Spurs reduced to 10 men before a late leveller.

Owen pointed to a VAR decision in a match against Manchester City as a factor, saying United "could be sat there with a few more points easily." He added: "I'm not saying that would make everything better, but, you know, let's get it right, United have been c*** for 10, 15 years now. The second-half of last season was as good as it's been for that period of time."

Patience over chopping and changing

Owen acknowledged the disappointment of being out of the League Cup and already out of the title race, but argued against a change of manager. "They've had old managers, they've had experienced managers, they've had ex-players, they've had the new glitzy, glamoury one from abroad. They've done everything. At some point, you've just got to understand that there's going to be a slow process back to getting where they want to be."

His comments follow reports that United privately accept they got the summer window wrong. The club spent around £155m on Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos, but The Sun claim the latter two were 'low down the list' behind Elliot Anderson, Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes, who proved too expensive. The club is also said to regret not signing a left-back.