The Portuguese coach suggested his side were "maybe the worst" team in United's history after the Premier League loss to Brighton at the weekend but the Sky Sports pundit thinks his withering verdict may not have the desired impact.

Carragher said: "I don't know Man Utd's history as well as Gary Neville but I must say it was one of the most bizarre and ridiculous things I've ever heard a manager say.

"Why you would make a comment like that… that's the type of comment a pundit would make, someone in my position, and you'd have to defend that. I don't know what he gains from that, what the benefit is.

"We all know it's a poor Man Utd team. They'd lost another game at home to Brighton, they'd done that in the last couple of years anyway. We know it's a tough season, we know it's a poor team. He has just loosened it up. That will be a quote that follows him for the rest of the season.

"He said to the journalists there, 'I'll give you your headline'. Why you would like to do that as a manager, I'll never know."

Carragher doubts that the comments will go down well with Amorim's players and could mean that the manager has problems motivating his squad for games this season.

The former Liverpool defender said: "It doesn't help you confidence-wise going forwards.

"I've not got much sympathy for the players in the Man Utd dressing room, they've been a joke for a few years now. A few weeks ago, after they played Liverpool, where Lisandro Martinez was talking about the mentality that was different - I nearly couldn't stop laughing when I saw that. The amount of times Man Utd have thrown the towel in with bad performances over the last four or five years.

"What I would say is how can the manager go into the dressing room between now and the end of the season and continually try to build them up and give them belief to beat the opposition, whoever they come up against, when he has said they're one of the worst teams in Man Utd history? At no point can I see what he'll gain from that."