Manchester United will finish in seventh place in the Premier League this season, according to Michael Owen.
The Red Devils had a good start to the 2024-25 campaign by defeating Fulham 1-0 last weekend, but they were on the wrong end of a 2-1 result against Brighton on Saturday as Erik ten Hag's side couldn't prevent the stoppage-time goal by Joao Pedro that secured all three points for the Seagulls.
While it's still very early in the season, Owen feels that this lack of consistency will continue on from the previous campaign in which United finished in eighth place.
For Owen, not enough has changed for his former club to make a substantial leap up the table by the end of the campaign.
"Manchester United were one of the first teams that I discounted for the top four to be honest," Owen told OLBG. "I’m surprised they didn't change their manager when they were changing an awful lot in the summer.
"As I've said before, I don't think Erik ten Hag is the right man for the job personally. The other frustration is that they have gone and signed players and now Leny Yoro is out injured for the first chunk of the season which is pretty demoralising for Manchester United fans and the club.
"There’s not been enough of a change out there on the pitch for me to believe there is going to be much of a change to their fortunes this season.
"They've had a couple of years now under ten Hag, if we were going to see improvement it would’ve been after six or seven months - not two years. I don't see any change.
"They keep throwing money at players, but they've been doing that for 15 years now and it's never worked. Why would it work now?"
"After the top four, I've gone Newcastle fifth and then I've gone Spurs sixth and then United in seventh."
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