‘Bad 5-a-side team’ – Roy Keane eviscerates Liverpool with scathing on-air assessment

Roy Keane was typically scathing in his assessment of Liverpool’s first-half performance against Manchester United this afternoon.

The home side raced into a 2-0 lead inside the first 15 minutes at Old Trafford through goals from Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko, with Jamie Carragher decrying the manner in which the Reds conceded to the Slovenian.

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Whilst there was an element of controversy to the second goal, with the ball appearing to hit the striker’s fingertips before crossing the line, the half-time score was a fair reflection of how the opening 45 minutes played out overall.

Keane rips into Liverpool over first-half performance

Speaking on punditry duty for Sky Sports at half-time, Keane cut loose in his criticism of Liverpool’s performance, singling out Andy Robertson for criticism.

He said of Arne Slot’s side: “They look frightened to death. They’ve started slow, they’ve given up two goals. Defensively, the second goal – Robertson getting beaten at the back post. Robertson defending so far and going forward… it’s been dreadful.

“Liverpool are like a five-a-side team, but a bad five-a-side team – not athletic, giving away the ball cheaply. United look like they can score every time they go forward.”

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Liverpool were abysmal in the first half

Keane is no stranger to whipping out cheap soundbytes to condemn Liverpool, that’s for sure, but it’s hard to disagree with his assessment of how the Reds played in the first half.

The Merseysiders were all too ponderous in possession and, when the ball got turned over, United were able to cut through them all too easily, as we witnessed with the second goal.

It’s one thing to be outclassed by a better team, but LFC were inexcusably timid in the opening 45 minutes against their fiercest rivals, almost as if they didn’t recognise the gravity of this fixture.

Thankfully, they came out after half-time with greater intent and had wiped out United’s lead within 10 minutes of the restart, even if Cody Gakpo’s equaliser was laid on a plate by some atrocious playing out from the back from the home side.

It’s 2-2 at the time of writing, and while the outlook has improved significantly for Liverpool since half-time, they can’t afford to slip back into their error-stren ways of the first half.