Manchester United's Henrikh Mkhitaryan's confidence has been hit due to slow start says Owen Hargreaves

Former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves believes Henrikh Mkhitaryan's confidence has been hit after a slow start to his Old Trafford career. After an impressive season at Borussa Dortmund, he made a switch to the Premier League last summer.

With the Bundesliga outfit, the Armenian international was the star player in the league and topped the assist chart with 15 assists. His impressive form saw Jose Mourinho sign for the Red Devils.

Mkhitaryan has made only one start so far for United, which came during his side's 2-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester City. Since then, the 27-year-old has not featured for the Premier League giants.

The ex-United man, who won the Champions League under Sir Alex Ferguson's guidance has urged the former Real Madrid and Chelsea manager to start Mkhitaryan as he claims the attacker needs to play regularly for the 20-time English champions.

"He needs to play, I can't believe that he's not getting a look-in. He would be a banker in my starting XI," Hargreaves told Squawka.

"He had a slow start at Dortmund too and he was the players' player of the year last season. He got 23 goals and 32 assists, which is staggering numbers."

"This wasn't in a terrible league against pub teams and I can't think of anybody who could put up those numbers besides Messi and Ronaldo. He's a top player and we haven't seen it yet at United.

"The thing is, he's such a wonderful player but I think he's also quite a sensitive guy. It would have been perfect if he started off flying with goals and assists, but the slow start has probably hit his confidence."

Mkhitaryan has not been allowed to settle at his new club as injuries have hampered his progress. He was deemed fit to face Liverpool on 17 October, but failed to make it to the squad in the last three matches after Mourinho confirmed the Armenian needs to regain his fitness to feature for the English giants.