Man Utd legend Roy Keane insists Manuel Ugarte and Casemiro were “non-existent” for most of their 2-1 defeat to Leeds on Monday night.
The Red Devils fell behind on five minutes to a Noah Okafor strike before the Switzerland international added his second of the night just 24 minutes later to give the visitors a commanding lead.
Leeds were given more hope of a famous result when Lisandro Martinez was controversially sent off, after VAR review, for pulling Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hair.
But it was Man Utd who got the next goal through a Casemiro header on 69 minutes to make it an interesting final 21 minutes at Old Trafford.
Leeds held on for the victory and Keane had praise for the Yorkshire side but focused most of his attention on the poor performance from Man Utd.
Re Devils legend Keane called out Ugarte – who has been on the winning side in just one of his ten starts this season – and Casemiro for their “non-existent” midfield partnership.
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Keane said on Sky Sports: “They’ll be disappointed. 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.”
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Reflecting on his side’s performance, Man Utd boss Michael Carrick said: “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.
“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.”
