Roy Keane blames two players for Man Utd’s Leeds defeat as he pulls no punches | Football | Sport

Roy Keane criticised Manchester United‘s “non-existent” midfield of Casemiro and Manuel Ugarte following their shock defeat to relegation-threatened Leeds at Old Trafford. Noah Okafor’s brace handed Leeds a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford in United’s first match for 24 days. The Leeds striker netted twice within the opening 29 minutes in a blistering start for Daniel Farke’s side, who might have been further ahead at the interval.

Lisandro Martinez was subsequently sent off for pulling Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair to leave United with 10 men as they pursued an equaliser. Casemiro reduced the deficit with a far-post header from Bruno Fernandes‘ delivery, but it proved insufficient for United, who suffered a home league defeat to their opponents for the first time since 1981. It marked only their second reverse in 11 matches under Michael Carrick’s stewardship, but Keane delivered a damning verdict.

“They’ll be disappointed,” he said on Sky Sports. “They’ve had a lot of momentum over the last few months, [there’s been] a lot of praise for the manager. There’s obviously been concerns going into the game that they haven’t played for a number of weeks. But the manager, Carrick, said that shouldn’t be a problem, they’ve had a training camp.

“But it was the way that they started the game – you start the game that slowly and it’s hard to recover. And they didn’t in the first half. And what you’ve got to do in this game – we saw Man City do it in the second half yesterday – you’ve got to run!

“They weren’t sprinting, United. And the bit at the end was too little too late. It’s a big setback for them. Midfield? Non-existent, the two of them, particularly in the first half, no energy, no quality. Leeds were out of the blocks quickly and it was a fantastic result for Leeds.”

Carrick was compelled to bring on the injured Kobbie Mainoo’s replacement Manuel Ugarte, who lined up alongside Casemiro at the heart of United’s midfield. They made a sluggish start as Leeds burst out of the traps, yet Carrick chose to draw attention to referee Paul Tierney’s rulings when he addressed the media after the match.

The United manager believed Leny Yoro was fouled by Calvert-Lewin prior to Okafor’s opening goal and that Martinez should not have been dismissed for his altercation with the Leeds striker. “We didn’t start the game particularly well. We conceded, which came after Leny Yoro got a forearm smash in the back of his head,” he said.

“They didn’t decide to overturn that, which was a big moment in the game. We didn’t quite have the rhythm, we didn’t click. We had some moments but it wasn’t there for large parts of the half.

“I thought the boys stayed positive and fought for everything in the second half, after a shocking decision to send Licha [Martinez] off. That’s two games in a row we’ve had those decisions go against us, but that one was one of the worst I’ve seen.”