Michael Owen has suggested that one Manchester United star might be playing in “the hardest position in the Premier League” after Wolves’ 2-0 win.
Manchester United’s woes in the 2024-25 season continued on Thursday evening after their Premier League trip to the Molineux.
Ruben Amorim’s men were once again deeply exposed from set pieces after Matheus Cunha broke the deadlock with a direct corner kick past Andre Onana.
United struggled to make an impact against Wolves and the Red Devils played the second half with only 10 men after Bruno Fernandes was sent off.
Vitor Pereira’s men ensured all three Premier League points in the dying stages of the match after Hwang Hee-chan netted past United deep into injury time.
Ruben Amorim has now seen the Red Devils slip to back-to-back Premier League defeats, including his side losing their last three matches across all competitions.
United were knocked out of the Carabao Cup last week at the hands of Tottenham before Bournemouth inflicted a 3-0 Premier League defeat at Old Trafford.
Owen reacts to Man Utd star’s performance
Manchester United languish in 14th place in the Premier League table and the Red Devils’ top-four hopes are all but certain to be over.
Ruben Amorim’s side are a whopping 11 points behind fourth-place Arsenal and United are now only eight points away from dropping into the relegation zone.
Speaking on Premier League Productions, Michael Owen admitted that he felt “sorry” for Rasmus Hojlund after Wolves’ 2-0 win at the Molineux on Boxing Day.
Rasmus Hojlund was left isolated in the first half and the 21-year-old United striker struggled to inject his influence into the Premier League match on Thursday.
The Denmark international was hooked off in the 79th minute by Amorim and replaced by summer signing Joshua Zirkzee for the rest of the second half.
“Hojlund… I feel so sorry for the lad,” Owen said, as per the Metro.
“That first half, six passes he received, four of them from defenders so in other words four of them are probably hopeful, long passes and two passes in the first half from a player who you would want to receive a pass off. And he’s supposed to do something with that.
“I can’t judge him as a player, I don’t know if he’s good or bad, and that’s the most damning thing you could say because after watching him for a year, I just feel as if he’s playing in possibly the hardest position in the Premier League to play in at the moment – centre-forward for Manchester United – I never thought I’d be saying that.
“Centre-forward for Manchester United used to be the dream for every centre-forward in the world, scoring dozens and dozens of goals, and now it’s a poisoned chalice. And I never thought I’d be saying that.”
Owen’s concern over Man Utd display vs Wolves
Owen pulled no punches towards United after the match and the former Liverpool and Red Devils striker claimed that Amorim’s side were “awful” going forward.
“I say they’re [United] not so bad at the back but I mean they play to defend, they don’t commit everybody forward,” he explained.
“I’m looking at the Manchester United team half the time there [against Wolves] and they’ve got three players marking one at the back, you’d never see a Liverpool team doing that, they’d all go man for man and if they’ve got spare men they’d push them into attacking areas.
“That’s probably what he [Amorim] is working towards but at the moment, even if they weren’t conceding many goals I wouldn’t be getting carried away because the team isn’t functioning.
“They’re absolutely awful going forward; I can’t think of a chance that they had there today [against Wolves].”
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