During his criticism of Manchester United’s “boring” performance against Leicester City, Roy Keane questioned the decision that Ruben Amorim made to play Patrick Dorgu at right wing-back by playing him in that position.
On Friday night, United secured their spot in the fifth round of the FA Cup by virtue of a controversial header from Harry Maguire in the final minute of the match, which resulted in a 2-1 victory for the home team.
The team coached by Ruben Amorim gave a performance that was not even close to convincing, and after Bobby De Cordova-Reid gave the away team a lead that they deserved going into halftime, Roy Keane made his feelings known regarding the situation.
In an interview with ITV, the former captain of United Football Club stated, “They’re boring now. You are tempted to go into the locker room and remind them what the game is all about by saying something along the lines of “there is a goal at that end and you need to get the ball in it to score.” They appear to be completely oblivious to the situation.
Keane continued by saying, “From the perspective of United, my goodness, is this what it’s come to?” We are aware of their poor record, but we are coming here tonight and looking at it with the mindset that “surely there will be a reaction, surely they will have enthusiasm and energy for the game.” These are our expectations. Indeed, it does not appear that they possess that.
In addition, the former Republic of Ireland midfielder shared his thoughts on Ruben Amorim’s decision to play new signing Patrick Dorgu on the right side of the pitch, despite the fact that Dorgu has spent the majority of his League One season playing on the opposite flank for Leece.
Even though he had a strong performance on his first appearance, Keane was not in the least bit pleased.
“There is a lack of belief, lack of confidence,” he said at the beginning. You are under the impression that he is going to play in his position, but he is actually playing right wing-back. In other words, they have brought in new players.
Do you believe that this is unfair to the players? When you consider the urgency of the goal, you will notice that it is being given away at a low cost, and people are not staying with their runners. I just take a look at it from the perspective of United and think to myself, “Oh my goodness, is this what it’s come to?”
Immediately following the blow of the final whistle, Ruben Amorim defended his choice to play Dorgu on the right side of the pitch.
“He played a lot of times for Lecce on both the right and the left,” said the head coach of the Portuguese team. “That is one of the qualities that we place a great deal of importance on. When he picked up the ball for the first time, he felt a little bit of nervousness. Even though he is playing at a different pace and in a different league, he did very well in this competition.
“He is going to make a lot of progress, and he already possesses both speed and strength. As a team, we need to improve our performance in order to assist the new player in reaching his full potential.
When you look at Dorgu’s past, you will notice that he played a significant number of games on the right side of the field. We need to have wingers who are capable of playing on both sides of the field, like [Diogo] Dalot.
“So I think it is a really important thing because sometimes you need a left foot on the right side to come in and connect in a different way and sometimes you need a right foot to connect and cross more balls.”
