Michael Owen slams two Man Utd stars for ‘criminal’ actions vs Leeds

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag reviews Leeds United draw

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Former Liverpool and Manchester United striker Michael Owen tore into the Red Devils during their 2-2 draw with Leeds on Wednesday. Erik ten Hag’s outfit found themselves two goals down but rescued a point thanks to efforts from Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho at Old Trafford.

However, the hosts could have conceded a third late on as Brenden Aaronson’s free-kick hit the post. The American’s strike came through a group of players to beat David De Gea and the Spanish goalkeeper was frustrated with those in the United wall. Rashford and Raphael Varane split and Aaronson’s effort went between the pair but his effort was inches away from finding the back of the net, leaving Owen incensed.

“I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe this wall,” Owen told Premier League Productions. “Look at this the way they split – Varane and Rashford they just split – the ball goes low, right through the middle, it didn’t go over the wall at all. If that goes in, and they both turn away, that’s criminal, that’s criminal. I mean, if that goes in there’s serious, serious words being had after.

“You simply cannot do that. You need to be big, brave and bold in a wall and to turn your back and split – everything you cannot do, they did there. They’ve got away with it. They better look at that and think, ‘wow, that’s pretty embarrassing, we can’t do that again’.”

Wilfried Gnonto opened the scoring inside five minutes after Bruno Fernandes lost the ball and the Italian exchanged passes with Patrick Bamford before firing past De Gea from the edge of the box. In the second half, Crysensio Summervile’s cross was deflected off Varane and into his own net.

Rashford’s header got a goal back for United before Sancho equalised off the bench with his first Premier League goal since the 1-0 win away to Leicester in September, having recently rejoined the squad.

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Ten Hag was also not happy with his team’s performance in general, citing a sluggish start, and will hope that the Red Devils can perform better at Elland Road when the two teams meet again next on Sunday. “When you start a derby like we did it’s unacceptable,” Ten Hag said.

“You have to be ready to fight and we weren’t ready for the battle. It looked like it [his players were not ready] but not me. We knew they will go aggressive, front foot, against a team on a good run, they’ll try to get into duels and that’s what they did.

“I start my talk at half time with: ‘Guys we are not ready in the first half, make sure you are this time.’ And then we go out and concede again. I am disappointed we lose all the battles in the first minutes of each half.”

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