You’re either a f***ing player ..or you’re not GRAEME SOUNESS
GRAEME SOUNESS has waded into Manchester United’s inconsistent stars with a four-letter X-rated rant.
In an extraordinary blast the former Liverpool skipper has told Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s stuttering squad: “You’re either a f***ing player or you’re not a player”.
And he reckons their side currently have more in common with League One Rochdale than the Premier League leaders.
Ahead of today’s meeting between English football’s two greatest rivals at Anfield, Souness taunted the current crop at Old Trafford with the extraordinary claim.
Liverpool are 27 points clear of United and look set to end their 30-year wait for the league championship by romping the Premier League this season.
Victory today will make it 21 wins from their opening 22 league games – only dropping points with a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in October.
And Souness made no bones about what United’s problem is as they toil outside of the Champions League qualification spots.
“It’s the players,” the Scot said. “You’re either a f***ing player or you’re not a player. You’re a big player or you’re not a big player.
“I’m sure there are proper players but they don’t show it enough.
When you say proper players, Marcus Rashford needs help there. The goalkeeper David De Gea is a top goalkeeper, the centre-back Harry Maguire could go and get in any team – they have got some proper players but they haven’t got enough.”
Souness added: “That’s why, one week, they’ll excite their supporters and the following week they will come away thinking, ‘Where are we going?’ This is the weakest Man United group since the advent of the Premier League.
“I could go and watch, or you could go and watch, Rochdale or Barnsley play.
“You’d say, ‘Bloody hell, that kid could play in the Premier League, one of the big teams.’ But he has three, four, five games a season like that. He might only play like that five times.
“But the big players at Liverpool and at City are bang at it and perform, giving it an eight out of 10 every week, and that’s what makes you a big player. That’s why the guy is playing at Barnsley or Rochdale.
“Right now, United have players that one day you think, ‘Oh, they’ve turned a corner,’ then they let their supporters down the following week.
“That’s the point I’m making, everyone who plays professional football, you could go and watch and think, wherever they are playing, ‘He could play for Liverpool.’ But go and watch them the following week and you’d go…” Souness trails off.
“I don’t think Liverpool have ever been that far away from United. In the Premier League years I don’t think that gap has been there.”
Souness was quick to heap praise on Jurgen Klopp and his charges, in particular the influence of senior players.
The ex-midfielder captained Liverpool to three league titles and one European Cup during his time on Merseyside and feels the leaders within the current squad are driving this unbeaten league campaign.
“If you look at the consistency they’ve shown going back to last season and this season, it’s incredible,” he said.
“Injuries have hurt Manchester City, moving Fernandinho from their midfield to the back certainly props up their back but they’ve missed him in midfield and I think Vincent Kompany going, who if fit was still their best defender.
“That’s hurt them but the consistency from Liverpool has been quite phenomenal. It’s just not normal.
“It’s not just the manager – that’s down to the type of players he’s got. The Milners, the Hendersons. Really, really good types who, everyday I would imagine, turn up and train properly and makes other people train properly.”
‘This is the weakest United group since the advent of the Premier League’
‘Liverpool give it an 8 out of 10 every week, and that’s what makes you a big player’
‘United have got proper players but they have not got enough’