Jamie Carragher has defended Manchester United fans over claims that last Sunday's protests only occurred because the club is no longer successful.Before the Red Devils' scheduled Premier League fixture against Liverpool, supporters broke into Old Trafford and ran on the pitch in a stand against the Glazer family's ownership of the club.Their actions resulted in the game being postponed and reaction to the protests has been very mixed."I think it's born out of United not being top dogs," Liverpool legend Graeme Souness controversially stated live on Sky Sports, something his colleague Carragher evidently disagrees with.Alongside Dave Jones and Thierry Henry in the Monday Night Football studio, Carragher leapt to the defence of United fans and the 43-year-old's latest rant is one of his finest yet."I really want to get this message across," he said. "This is not the European Super League for me. When we had the six clubs, we spoke about this a couple of weeks ago, the supporters who really felt this more and marched on stadiums are Manchester United and Arsenal - that's because they had a huge problem with their owners before this," the former Liverpool defender explained in a passionate sermon."This was the tipping point. Other supporters are very angry with their owners, but don't necessarily want them out. I think it's different for these two clubs, because of that."I think we have got to get away from that [the ESL]. I've listened to a lot this morning and I watched other things. I've got no problem with people having a different point of view or a different opinion from me, because it's nuanced what happened yesterday. But get the facts. Please, when you are going to talk about this, know what's going on."This talk of Manchester United fans only doing this because they are not challenging for the top honours... Supporters formed another club - FC United. That was at the height of this when it started."The green and gold campaign was in 2010, I think, when David Beckham came back to the club. The year before that, they were in the Champions League final. The year after they were in the Champions League final. So let's not... lazy punditry. That's what I call it."If you're going to speak about something and you're going to speak about something passionately - and you can have your opinion - back it up with the facts.

"This is nothing to do with where Manchester United are in the league. Yes, there's been a decline, obviously, but this campaign has been going on for a long, long time, from when Manchester United were very, very successful.

"So let's not accuse Manchester United fans of just throwing the toys out the pram because they're not competing with [Manchester] City or in the Champions League, whatever it may be. That is absolute nonsense."

Well said, Jamie.

United fans have protested against the Glazer family on multiple occasions since they took control of the club in May 2005, including when the Red Devils were arguably the world's finest team under Sir Alex Ferguson's leadership.

The idea that the scenes at Old Trafford last Sunday were due to the team not being as good as they once were is absolutely laughable and Carragher was right to shut it down live on TV.

(Credit: The Football Terrace)