Roy Keane slams 'classless' Liverpool for title win response - 'They’re irritating me'

Roy Keane

Roy Keane has hit out at Liverpool for how they have responded since clinching the Premier League title. The Reds were crowned champions after thrashing Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 on April 27.

However, Arne Slot’s side are winless from their three outings since then, with away defeats at Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion sandwiching a 2-2 home draw with Arsenal in which Liverpool surrendered a two-goal lead

Slot has granted his squad additional holiday each week since winning the title, with the Reds head coach himself and his players spotted celebrating abroad before reporting back.

Keane, who won seven Premier League titles during his time with Manchester United, admits Liverpool have irritated him in recent weeks and urged them to ‘show a bit of class’.

Keane said:

“Liverpool have switched off - they’re irritating me,”

“It doesn’t matter [that they’ve won the league], but the fringe players and the B team are coming in - what kind of message is that?

“I’m thinking come on – show a bit of class. (Mohamed) Salah scores a goal and he’s taking pictures - the game’s still on. Liven up a little bit!”

Slot has used the last three matches to rotate his side, with Jarell Quansah, Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa all being handed rare Premier League starts.

Both Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher and Manchester United icon Gary Neville are unsurprised that the Reds have struggled when making mass changes.

Carragher

“I’ve always felt that with fringe players - and it’s not a criticism - I’ve always felt that every great team has five or six players who, if one of those players is missing you feel it,”

“Let’s go with Liverpool - if the goalie [Alisson] was missing, you’d feel it.

“[Virgil] van Dijk, [Alexis] Mac Allister, [Mo] Salah - the rest around them are all good players, but they can’t cope on their own, they need the good players.

“You’ve seen Liverpool’s centre-backs [against Brighton] without van Dijk. That’s not a criticism - you go through every great team, there’s not 11 world class players in a team.

“There’s normally five or six, and the other five or six are hanging on to their coattails.”

Neville responded

“That’s why I’ve always disagreed with you [Jamie Carragher] about fringe players coming in en masse.

“I think what you said is absolutely right [about teams only having five or six world class players].

“When we first came into the first team [at Manchester United] the spine of the team was [Peter] Schmeichel, [Gary] Pallister, [Steve] Bruce, Roy [Keane], Incey [Paul Ince].”

“We were on the fringe of that, and if we didn’t have them, say seven or eight of us came in at once, that was okay against Port Vale in the League Cup, but if we’d have come in without these players, we’d have fallen over 100%.

“I’ve always thought that making changes to teams en masse by bringing in five or six fringe players, and taking out van Dijk and Mac Allister, it’s hard for the fringe players to create a performance level when the spine of the team have gone out.”