Manchester United’s Michael Owen has spoken of his desire to play more regularly for the Red Devils, after scoring a brace against Leeds in their 3-0 League Cup victory.

The former Liverpool striker has found starting berths hard to come by in Manchester, making just 11 appearances for the club in the league last season, but Owen insists he is fighting to play more.

"I'm not content if I'm not playing," said Owen, according to Sky Sports.

"I get criticised a lot with things like 'you don't play, you pick your money up' and all the rest of it but I'm not proud of that fact. I want to play all the time."

In his first season at United, Owen made 19 appearances in the league, but with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck and Dimitar Berbatov all at the club, the 31-year-old admits it will be difficult to notch up that many appearances again.

"If the season was going to be like the first season I was here then I'd be delighted," added Owen.

"That was fantastic and I felt involved. I was always either on the bench or playing.

"Obviously I want to be involved again but I appreciate that there's some top players in the team and in the squad and it's a challenge to get on the bench let alone into the first team."

Asked what he thinks the future holds for his career, Owen responded: "I believe I've got a few years left in me and I'd love it to be at Man United.

"For that to happen I've got to be involved because the manager wouldn't want me sitting round and I wouldn't want to sit round if I wasn't part of the squad or part of things.

"As we stand now we've been playing four or five weeks of the season. We've only had one game a week so he hasn't rotated anyone really.

"You could count all the players out there today and not many of them have had much action so hopefully now the season is under way and we're playing twice a week the whole squad and not just me will get more of a chance."

That next chance may come as early as Saturday with a match against Stoke in the Premier League, followed on Tuesday by a Champions League fixture against Swiss side Basle.