Former Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini has claimed that the Red Devils were too quick to sack Jose Mourinho as head coach.

Mourinho was relieved of his duties in December 2018 after a poor start to the 2018-19 campaign, but the club's struggles have continued under new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Fellaini was a favourite of Mourinho during his time at Old Trafford, and the Belgium international, who currently turns out for Shandong Luneng, has criticised the Red Devils for not handing the Portuguese more time.

"They brought in one of the best managers in the world in Jose Mourinho, he wanted to build a team and they sacked him," Fellaini told reporters. "It's not easy to build a team in that time, you need more than two years.

"I don't know what they will do with Solskjaer but, for me, to win things and to improve, you need time. Mourinho, for the first season, he did amazingly, he improved the team, won things. Ok, the second season was a bit more difficult, but he tried, you know, and did his best to help the team. Then they decided to sack him.

"For me, yes [United were too hasty in sacking Mourinho] because a manager like that comes and he needs a lot of players to implement his own philosophy. He wanted to build his team and after two years, or two years and a half, they decided to sack him because the results were not there."

United have made their worst start to a top-flight campaign for 30 years, having only picked up nine points from their opening eight games of the 2019-20 Premier League season.