Richard Keys has wasted little time blasting Manchester United‘s shock 3-2 defeat by Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday night, criticising both manager Erik ten Hag and a number of players.
United suffered a second successive defeat at Old Trafford on Tuesday night, having already lost 1-0 at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
Against Turkish champions Galatasaray they had twice taken the lead through Rasmus Hojlund, who is now the youngest player to score in both his first Champions League appearances since Erling Haaland.
However, the Turkish outfit three times fought back, and even had a penalty missed by Mauro Icardi before the Argentine supplied the finishing touches to condemn the Red Devils to a bruising defeat.
With pressure ramping up on Ten Hag after a poor start to the 2023-24 season, this latest loss has seen critics assert that their is a lack of leadership at the club, with many also questioning the quality of defending on show.
Manchester United lost at home for the second successive game in all competitions
Having twice led through Rasmus Hojlund (third right), they ultimately lost 3-2 at Old Trafford
Richard Keys picked out six players in total, as well as claiming that one United star was a ‘liability’
Keys took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to voice his own opinions on their performance on Tuesday, writing: ‘It’s clear Erik ten Hag has lost his players with his tin-pot tough guy act & by always blaming them. That’s repairable.
‘Casemiro, Christian Eriksen, Raphael Varane & Sofyan Amrabat not being able to run isn’t & the goalkeeper is a liability.
‘Bruno Fernandes won’t run – that’s a big problem. He’s not a captain.’
Hojlund had given the hosts the lead on 17 minutes, with former forward Wilfried Zaha needing just six minutes to get Galatasaray back on level pegging after out-muscling Diogo Dalot.
The parity held until the break, before the Danish attacker netted his second of the game in fine fashion with a deft chip, but again the Turkish champions came back, with Muhammed Kerem Akturkoglu equalising not four minutes later.
But things quickly got away from the home side, with a shocking error at the back from Andre Onana leaving Casemiro short and picking up a second yellow preventing a third goal, and giving away a penalty.
Although Icardi missed the penalty – his second in a week although in somewhat less spectacular fashion – he would eventually score the winning goal with Galatasaray a man up on United.
Keys was not the only one to pick out Varane’s poor performance at the back, with club legend Paul Scholes also pointing the finger at the Frenchman, as well as criticising the overall defensive display at Old Trafford.
Andre Onana once again came in for poor reviews after another error at the back on Tuesday
Bruno Fernandes was criticised for his lack of running, with Keys also saying ‘he’s not a captain’
‘Really disappointed. I actually don’t think they played that badly. All the talk before the game was that they couldn’t really score goals and there was a a lack of goals in the team.
‘It is almost as if we disregarded the defensive side of the game and the defensive side of the team it wasn’t good enough they were wide open at times.’
After acknowledging the goals, he added: The rest of it, the centre halves especially. Amrabat, look he’s not a left-back he gets done for the third goal.
‘But it was so wide open (the defence) Victor Lindelof and Varane were so soft and weak and we all know what the goalkeeper did as well.’
Raphael Varane also struggled in defence and was picked out by both Keys and Paul Scholes
