Roy Keane has hit out at clubs like Liverpool who sacrifice cup competitions in order to rest their players for league games, writes Stephen Barry.
While four FA Cup quarter-finals are down for decision this weekend, Sunday’s only Premier League game sees Liverpool meet Burnley, clubs who were both knocked out of the cup having fielded weakened sides.
Last weekend Liverpool legend Phil Thompson said: “We need a bit of attitude and aggression, a bit of a nark in central midfield if you want — a Graeme Souness or, dare I say it, a Roy Keane.”
The Man United hero dares to say that Liverpool, in particular, are costing themselves a chance of winning their first silverware since the 2012 League Cup, when Kenny Dalglish was in charge.
“You talk about clubs like Liverpool, who aren’t in Europe, on about squad rotation, when they haven’t won a trophy in years,” said Keane, to laughter from the audience at a sold-out fundraiser for Cobh Ramblers.
“Everyone in England seems to be talking about the game next week, ‘Oh, we’ve a game next week’. No, you’ve a game fucking today.
“I went to watch Liverpool and Wolves a few weeks ago, and you’d Liverpool Football Club playing a load of young kids because they’d a game next Tuesday, which they drew.
“Playing Wolves at home… A game next week?” repeated Keane as the pitch of his voice rose.
“Every manager talks about it, ‘Oh, we’re rotating, we’ve got a game at Christmas.’
“Players want to play. Players want to play 50, 60 matches. What happened to those days?
“Especially now that we’ve been brainwashed by sports science. You can’t play two games in a row now! Like Sam Allardyce, these people would brainwash you. These fellows are never involved in cup competitions anyway.
“You see these clubs resting players, and then when they’re out of these cup competitions they’d have two weeks without a game and go to Dubai for a training camp.
“If you were a player, would you rather be playing a cup match today or be in Dubai, or wherever the hell they go? I think Sunderland went to New York to visit Central Park.
“Surely you’d want to be playing a cup match today. Surely you’d like the opportunity to get to a cup final, or semi-final, or quarter-final.
“Even when Burnley were at home to Lincoln, I think Lincoln rested a few because they’d a league match on the Tuesday against Braintree away… And they won.”
Keane wonders how long Liverpool’s patience with Klopp will last while they remain without silverware.
“They seem to be more patient towards Klopp because of his personality. He seems like a really good guy, full of energy and enthusiasm.
“But if you’re going to be manager of Liverpool then you’ve certainly got to be winning trophies and you can’t be losing at home to teams like Wolves in the FA Cup, whatever about squad rotations and that nonsense. He’s got to be there to win trophies.
“Whether he gets much more patience over the next six months remains to be seen. If he can get in the top-four then that’ll give him a bit more time. He signed a new deal last year, he’s on a six year deal – not that contracts mean that much these days.
“The fans took to Klopp when he first came in because of that enthusiasm and personality but that can soon change.”
Keane doesn’t go easy on his old club either: “United are still a great club but I’m just always wary of Mourinho.
“He talks about this and that but the last time I looked at the league, United are 17 points behind Chelsea.
“With the players that they have, with the wages they’re paying out, it’s ridiculous to be 17 points behind anybody.”
