Roy Keane has given his view on the possibility of Erik ten Hag losing his job. (Image: Sky Sports.)
Roy Keane has called on Manchester United to back Erik ten Hag and give him more time to turn the club’s fortunes around, despite suffering another disappointing result with a 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal. The Red Devils are facing the prospect of spending next season without any European football and pressure continues to ramp up on the Dutch head coach.
But Keane wants United to show the faith after two years with Ten Hag at the helm. “I hope he’s given more time,” he replied when asked if he thinks that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the new INEOS hierarchy could part ways with the current boss.
Keane, ex-manager of Sunderland and Ipswich, has launched a staunch defence of the current United boss and warned fans not to forget the promising signs shown last season, which involved a Carabao Cup victory.
The Irishman also pointed to the lengthy injury list that has decimated the squad throughout the campaign, with key figures such as captain Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Lisandro Martinez and Harry Maguire all unavailable for the visit of Arsenal.
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Erik ten Hag walking off the drenched Old Trafford pitch after Manchester United’s loss to Arsenal. (Image: Getty)
After watching Ten Hag being surprisingly upbeat in his post-match interview, where he took the positives from the defeat, Keane understood where the former Ajax man was coming from. “He’s an experienced manager,” Keane explained to Sky Sports. “(It’s) certainly not easy getting interviewed after the game where the stats for this team are so bad, in terms of the record defeats, where they are in the table, their struggles in Europe…
“Yeah they have a cup final coming up in a few weeks, it’s a tough interview. He’s trying to stay positive, tough questions he has been asked about the players behind him, is he tactically up to it.
“(Is he) tactically up to it? I would like to think so. I think there has been genuine problems at the club, the injuries, he’s pretty honest with that side of it. But the more games you are losing and when you are eighth in the table, I suppose you end up losing that belief.
“But I would never sit in the studio and think: ‘I hope the manager should lose his job’ or anything like that. I hope he is given more time. When they get to the summer they can regroup and restructure the club, whatever that may be.
“There are huge problems at the club but I hope he is given a chance to get things right, because last year there were some positives, you have to be honest with that. But there are huge challenges coming up and he is under huge pressure.”
Source: https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1898331/Man-Utd-news-Roy-Keane-Ten-Hag-sack