Roy Keane has come under fire for his claim that Liverpool are “bad champions”, with a thread composed by @Thiago6lcantara exposing just how ludicrous the former midfielder’s words were.
The Manchester United legend went off at Jurgen Klopp’s side following their 4-1 humbling at Manchester City’s hands last weekend, making a rather astonishing prediction that the Reds were at risk of another 30-year-wait for the title.
One might think that when the former Red Devils’ side were faced with a similar (emphasis on ‘similar’) scenario to our centre-back crisis, the Manchester-based club would have handled things very differently?
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The truth can be extremely difficult to handle, but to give Keane the benefit of the doubt, we’ll just assume that the Sky Sports pundit merely forgot about how United fared under similar circumstances.
Claims that Liverpool’s performances have suffered this season for any other reason than our injury crisis come off as rather ill-informed and, at worst, lazy.
To have lost Virgil van Dijk alone for the season would have been a tragedy, but to lose both our starting centre-backs for the long-term is beyond the realm of poor luck.
Any side would feel the loss of one of their key centre-backs, so the question remains as to why Roy Keane is so reluctant to acknowledge this.
You can see the full thread below, courtesy of @Thiago6lcantara:
In December 2003, reigning champions Manchester United are sitting at the top of the table when news breaks out that Centre Back Rio Ferdinand will be serving an 8-month ban for failure or refusal to take a drug test. pic.twitter.com/chcf317H4Q
— Flo (@thiago6lcantara) February 9, 2021
In the game vs Wolves, Rio Ferdinand gets a knee injury and is replaced in the 50th minute in what is his last game before starting his lengthy suspension. Champions Manchester United concede 16 minutes later and lose the game 1-0. pic.twitter.com/wK74PqNhib
— Flo (@thiago6lcantara) February 9, 2021
Champions Manchester United finished the season 15 points behind the eventual champions Arsenal after averaging 1.47 points per game in their final 17 games of the league season. pic.twitter.com/qF892Dp4gi
— Flo (@thiago6lcantara) February 9, 2021
In Roy Keane’s own words, as stated in his autobiography in regards to Rio Ferdinands’ absence: ‘We missed him, especially in the second half of the season when the crunch games were coming up’ and ‘ultimately, the team suffered’. pic.twitter.com/oWI55yeM6n
— Flo (@thiago6lcantara) February 9, 2021
It appears to me that either missing important players in key positions does affect a teams performance/results and not everything is about ‘poor mentality’ or Roy Keane is an expert with first hand experience of being a ‘bad champion’.
End of thread. pic.twitter.com/Nqc2asTy40
— Flo (@thiago6lcantara) February 9, 2021
Now that’s a champion thread!
Roy keane you’re OUT!