Krishnan Sreekumar
Chris Sutton claims Manchester United legend Roy Keane was ‘kind’ in his assessment of the club after the derby defeat
Writing in his column for the Daily Mail, former Blackburn Rovers star Chris Sutton ripped into the Manchester United players after their 4-1 derby defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, and said that Roy Keane was being modest in his assessment of the squad.
United put in one of their worst performances of the season at the Etihad Stadium, and it did them no favours as City ran riot over their neighbours and condemned them to a devastating defeat. The result leaves us in fifth place in the Premier League table.
Sutton, who won the league with Blackburn in 1995, said that Roy Keane was kind in his ratings of the Red Devils players. The ex-United skipper had said that five or six stars needed to be shipped out after the defeat to City, but Sutton reckons that number was modest at best.
“I might be the first person to ever utter these words but here goes: Roy Keane was kind. He said ‘five or six’ should never play for Manchester United again. I’d say that’s modest.”
Interim manager Ralf Rangnick was brought in to steady the ship after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s terrible run of form left the club in a terrible position in the league table. So far, the German has only been able to guide the team to fifth place, in danger of missing out on the Champions League qualification spots.
“Double figures”
Out of all the players who made an appearance against City on Sunday, Sutton opted to only keep David de Gea, Scott McTominay, Anthony Elanga, Jadon Sancho, and Bruno Fernandes in the team next season. In a bold statement, the Englishman left out 5-time Ballon D’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
The former Celtic star said that for a team that is looking to compete for titles and become an elite club again, they need to get rid of most of the current players they have, after an embarrassing performance at the Etihad on Sunday.
“United fans want to see their team competing for the Premier League and Champions League. If we’re basing our decisions on who’s good enough to make them an elite club again, then we could hit double figures in terms of who gets binned. Their performance at the Etihad was embarrassing.”
In a brutal assessment of the Manchester United squad, Sutton has gone all-in and spared very few in a frank rating of the first team players. The Englishman has left major stars like Harry Maguire and Paul Pogba out of the team for next season, indicating just how poor the players have been this term.
The pundit made a comparison to Arsenal and said that like the Gunners, the Red Devils need to hit the reset button and slowly build a new team again. Mikel Arteta’s approach was lauded, saying that fans can see what the attempt from the Spaniard is, and that United need to follow suit.
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With 10 games to go in the Premier League, fans can only hope that the team kicks on from here and puts this defeat aside as quickly as possible. March sees us take on Tottenham Hotspur, Atletico Madrid, and Liverpool in the coming weeks, so it will not be an easy journey from here on out.
Rangnick will need to focus on getting the team into the Champions League qualification spot and finish the season strongly, after an underwhelming campaign so far. Even if no trophies come our way this term, playing in the UCL next season needs to be a priority.
