Denis Irwin has insisted that Manchester United cannot hope to compete if they keep conceding goals at their current alarming rate.
Manchester United have let in 21 goals in their opening 12 Premier League games and are now eighth in the league table with a negative goal difference.
Jose Mourinho has talked about finding a balance between attacking and defending to fix the problem, but he has not looked anywhere close to finding a solution in recent weeks.
Irwin conceded that his former side have conceded too many goals and says they cannot hope to continue to chase games and mount comebacks every week.
The former defender stressed that Mourinho’s team have no chance of competing for any kind of honours if their defence doesn’t improve soon enough.
Irwin said on MUTV’s The Paddy Crerand Show: “The problem for me is that we are conceding too many goals.
“We are forever chasing games.
"We are always on the back foot because of the goals we are conceding.
“There’s no way you can compete by conceding 21 goals in 12 games.
“That’s nearly two per game.”
Manchester United have kept just one clean sheet this season, against Burnley when they won 2-0 at Turf Moor in early September.
