Former Premier League midfielder and pundit Jamie O’Hara has not held back on his thoughts on Manchester United and the situation the club is in.

A 3-0 home defeat against AFC Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon leaves the side in 13th place in the Premier League table, having picked up 22 points from their opening 17 games. New head coach Ruben Amorim has been in charge for just six of those Premier League matches, United have won three, lost two and drew one.

However, the loss against Bournemouth has led to early criticism of the manager by O’Hara. The pundit claims that he’s actually seen United regress under the new boss.

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“Manchester United for me are an absolute disgrace,” he told Grosvenor Sport. “They’ve brought in a new manager in Ruben Amorim but absolutely nothing’s changed – they were arguably better under Ruud van Nistelrooy.”

But it wasn’t just Amorim who came under scrutiny from the pundit, he’s also criticised the running of the club since the takeover by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

“Sir Jim Ratcliffe has come in, given it large about bringing back the glory years at the club, but it seems he’s been focussed on being a penny pincher and trying to save money on stewards and staff lunches,” he added. “They’re Manchester United – they’re meant to be the biggest club in the world. Ratcliffe has arguably embarrassed himself and it’s set such a poor foundation for Amorim to come into.

“You honestly may as well still have the Glazers in charge – at least they tried to spend a bit of money! Ratcliffe is paying Anthony £300k a week yet he’s penny pinching off staff and other areas in the club – it’s an absolute joke and it’s just not Manchester United for me.”

The early criticism of Amorim seems harsh, given the short amount of time that the head coach has had in charge so far. The new man has had to work with the squad given to him, but will hope to strengthen again in the January window.

He has so far, not been afraid to make tough decisions. Leaving Marcus Rashford out of the squad being the one that stands out, a sale of the forward in January could raise some more much-needed funds for the window.

Amorim is known for his 3-4-2-1 formation that he used at Sporting, and it’s something he’s brought with him to United. But as O’Hara admitted himself, it’s a formation that could take some time, and changes to the squad, to adapt to.

“I think Manchester United could finish in the bottom half of the Premier League this season,” O’Hara added. “The ‘middle’ teams in the division are doing really well this year and are signing good players, whereas United are miles off it in my opinion. The highest paid players don’t even want to be there, they’re playing a formation that doesn’t suit the players, and the winning mentality at the club has gone.

“These players must be looking at the new ownership group that have come in and saying, ‘who are these guys who are running things now?’ You wouldn’t see this at Manchester City or even Liverpool. I’m not happy about the way INEOS are running things. They’re meant to be the biggest club in the world, yet they’re not acting like it at the moment. It could be a while before the break back into the top half.”

That task of breaking back into the top half and then climbing higher between now and the end of the season falls on Amorim. But he also needs to be backed with the right signings in the January window and in future windows.

Time will tell if the new boss can lead United back to where they want to be. But, history, particularly with Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson, tells us that managers sometimes need time for their ideas to show on the pitch. Judging Amorim too early is not going to help anyone.