Roy Keane ponders Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United future and gives damning Casemiro verdict

Manchester United’s troubled season hit rock bottom in their 4-0 defeat against Crystal Palace on Monday night and now Roy Keane has given his verdict on the unravelling story at Old Trafford.

Erik ten Hag’s future as United manager is set to be resolved in the next few weeks, with his team striving to seal a place in European competition for next season and finishing their campaign with the FA Cup final against Manchester City.

Keane suggested the United manager needs to accept he has failed to find solutions to recurring problems in his team.

“You can’t shy away from the manager’s responsibility,” said Keane on the Stick to Football Podcast.

“The bigger picture is something’s not good at the training ground. If you said give these players to (Jurgen) Klopp or Pep (Guardiola) – world class players – would I think they’d get more out of them? Probably. So, that’s where the manager needs to take a look at himself.

“He looked isolated the other night on the sideline. He’s looking at the staff around him, but you’ve got to bring something to the party, create something. It’s just not happening.”

Keane went on to ponder whether the game’s top players would want to join United in this summer’s transfer window, with the team continuing to slide further behind the trophy chasers.

“You wouldn’t want to sign for United at this moment in time, and the player has to take responsibility, sometimes you’ve got to go in and find your own form, of having an impact,” he continued.

“Whether it be (Mason) Mount, where players are picking up injuries etcetera, but, you have to go into an environment, from my own experience of going into a club, where you go – you’ve got to walk into a good dressing room – where you think, listen there’s a bit of momentum at the club, there’s people making the right decisions.

“Maybe United, for all of the bad decisions they’ve made over the last 5/10 years, maybe they are getting what they deserve. If they are making such bad decisions at board level and the recruitment side of it, then maybe you just deserve to go through this difficult patch.”

Keane also gave his verdict on the form and future of United’s out-of-form Brazilian star Casemiro, as he suggested his woeful performance against Palace should end the experiment of playing the holding midfielder as a make-shift defender.

“Casemiro is the last player you’d want to play at centre-half against Palace, in his defence,” he added.

“Some players have all the experience, but they don’t show it at certain times. But look at the whole Manchester United squad, if you’re telling me one player I wouldn’t play at centre-half against Palace, who have something going at home, they scored five against West Ham recently, they’ve beaten Newcastle and they even scored two against City – it would not be Casemiro against them.

“I would play anyone else at centre back than Casemiro. When you get to 31 and 32, every time you have a really bad game, it becomes a shocker. I had people tell me that I was finished at that level, but players can get through it if they play in their best position.

“I looked at Casemiro the other night and he was having a bad time, but he wasn’t getting any help from the other players. If your legs are going a bit, you get people around you to help and that’s where he should’ve done better with his experience.

“Crystal Palace were really at it and everyone would look at it and think Palace away on a Monday night is going to be a tough night and Casemiro was isolated. He was isolated by his own fault, because he wasn’t getting people around him, and you have to take responsibility for that.

“I’m not saying he didn’t have a shocker. Great players have a dip in confidence, but who’s helping him?

“This is a top-class player and you’re looking at the lads around him, people like Jonny Evans, who is a centre-half – that’s his position! He’s got fullbacks around him too and sometimes you look at one of your teammates and think ‘it’s not happening for him today’ and I forgive a player when he’s having a tough time.

“But when he’s also out of position against a team who have a couple of good players who can go by people even in their prime, it compounds the mistakes.

“My frustration was with the players around Casemiro – help him out. Jonny is a centre-half and the full backs should just sit in.

“But if we’re talking about it being a team game, structure-this and structure-that, playing between the lines, that’s all well and good but when you’re up against it, you need your teammates around you. There’s the whole idea of playing in a team.

“Of all the players at Manchester United, including the reserves and youth team, if there as one player I wouldn’t play at centre-half against Crystal Palace, he’d be the one I wouldn’t play. Aaron Wan-Bissaka or someone else.”

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