Roy Keane believes Manchester United’s 3-1 defeat to bitter rivals Manchester City leaves ‘huge question marks’ over Erik ten Hag’s future.
United, massive underdogs heading into the 192nd Manchester derby, took the lead after only eight minutes as Marcus Rashford beat Ederson with a thunderous long-range strike at the Etihad.
But the Premier League champions, last year’s treble winners, equalised through a Phil Foden wondergoal to leave the match firmly in the balance with 30 minutes remaining.
An inspired Foden doubled his tally to put City in front with a superb 80th minute finish and Erling Haaland put the hosts out of sight in stoppage time after blazing over the bar with a miss-of-the-season contender.
The result saw City move to within a point of top-of-the-table Liverpool, while remain in sixth, nine points adrift of fourth-placed Aston Villa after 27 games.
‘Look, I don’t want to be too hard on United today because I just thought Man City were brilliant. Man City showed why they’re champions,’ former United captain Keane said on Sky Sports shortly after the final whistle.
‘That’s 11 league losses now for United. What City do is they find out all your shortcomings.
‘When you’re on that pitch and it’s tough, there is no hiding place.
‘It’s like a boxer. When you’re in that ring there is no hiding place.
‘They just wore them down and wore them down.’
Keane felt United were ‘hanging on’ before a ‘dominant’ City went up a gear to seal all three points to casting yet more doubt on an already under-fire Ten Hag.
‘United made a substitution. Jonny went off after around 69 minutes, they had to change the back four and they were kind of hanging on there anyway,’ he added.
‘The stats at the end of the game show you how strong and dominant this Man City were.
‘Players like Haaland and [Kevin] De Bruyne weren’t at their very best but then you have people like Foden who step up. He’s an amazing, brilliant player.’
‘And United, it still leaves that question mark over Man United. Where is this Man United team going? Particularly when in the last 20 or 25 minutes they couldn’t get near City. City toyed with them.
‘But probably today it’s more credit to City than really being critical of this Man United team because we know United’s shortcomings.
‘United will have to take their medicine today. Huge question marks for this team and unfortunately for the manager.’
Keane said United’s record of 11 league defeats this season was ‘scary’ and claimed City could have made it ‘four or five’ in the second half.
‘That’s 11 league games they’ve lost. That’s one scary stat when you consider where United are. Obviously they gave up so many goals in defeats,’ the ex-Republic of Ireland midfielder went on.
‘We spoke last week in the Fulham game, they lacked a bit of energy. In the last 20 to 25 minutes City were just men versus boys at the end.
‘United were just hanging in there and making mistakes at the end.
‘The lads coming off the pitch not quite getting up to speed while City’s players were coming on and making a difference and giving them energy.
‘Towards the end you’re thinking it could be four or five. You have to take it.’
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