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Former Arsenal defender questions if Man Utd assistant coach is ‘giving everything’ to under-pressure manager
Martin Keown appears to have reopened his feud with Ruud van Nistelrooy by questioning whether the Dutchman is waiting to take over from struggling Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag.
Van Nistelrooy returned to Old Trafford this summer as an assistant coach on Ten Hag’s staff, having previously been the manager of PSV Eindhoven, and Keown has now expressed doubts about the former striker’s commitment to Ten Hag’s cause.
Keown famously clashed with Van Nistelrooy during their playing days, with the then-Arsenal defender jumping on his opponent and celebrating aggressively in his face after a late penalty miss at Old Trafford in 2003. Keown, who was suspended for three games, believed Van Nistelrooy intentionally got Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira sent off.
Speaking on TalkSport on Monday, following United’s humiliating 3-0 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur this weekend, Keown has now turned his attention towards Van Nistelrooy again by questioning the 48-year-old’s motives for returning to United.
“I’m looking at Van Nistelrooy,” said Keown. “Is he giving everything to this manager? This manager looks very lonely on the sideline. Is Van Nistelrooy waiting to take over? Because it looks as if there’s going to be change taking place there.
“Is everyone adding to the group? I’m not seeing that from Van Nistelrooy. Ten Hag is just sitting there, nothing going on, no conversation. Pep [Guardiola] goes back and speaks to the gurus next to him. Is everybody looking in the mirror at themselves giving their best?
“It doesn’t look like the players are committed, it doesn’t look like the staff are particularly committed. It’s a lone man in the dugout.
“You hope that that group of players is there in the dressing room right now and maybe tries to police it because it’s not unusual. It wouldn’t have been [unusual] in our dressing room to have the occasional meeting where we had to try to bash out where things were wrong, where things weren’t going well.”
As reported by Telegraph Sport, Ten Hag is expected to remain in charge for Manchester United’s games against Porto and Aston Villa this week amid growing pressure.
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