Former England striker Michael Owen believes Manchester United declined massively and are ‘now a mid-table team’.

The BT Sport pundit was speaking following Thursday's uninspiring 0-0 draw with AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League.

The game was the latest disappointment in what has been a very poor start to the season, the Red Devils currently sitting 10th in the Premier League.

Michael Owen believes Man United have declined massively and are ‘now a mid-table team’

'Yes, I'd say (Manchester United are now a mid-table team),' Owen responded when asked. 'I don't think they'll be top six this season, personally.

'Top half I think is likely, but just the fact we're having this conversation is the worry, isn't it?

'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.

United put in another flat performance as they drew 0-0 with AZ Alkmaar on Thursday

'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 Lukaku, Herrera, [Matteo] Darmian, 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.'