Manchester United legends Roy Keane and Paul Scholes could no longer bottle up their true feelings over one common dislike they share about modern football.
Roy Keane and Paul Scholes shared a formidable midfield partnership together during their respective legendary playing careers at Manchester United.
Scholes spent his entire playing career at Old Trafford – across two different spells – after breaking into the United first team from his days in the youth academy.
The 49-year-old United legend is widely considered one of the best midfielders of all time and was a linchpin midfield influence for former manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Keane, on the other hand, ascended to the United captaincy under Sir Alex Ferguson and had a long-lasting impact both on the field and off it as a leader.
A commanding box-to-box midfielder in his prime, the 53-year-old Irishman was widely admired for his tough-as-nails reputation and no-nonsense approach.
However, Keane’s spell at Old Trafford came to an end in 2005 after his falling out with Ferguson and the Irishman saw out the rest of his playing career with Celtic.
Keane opens up on major dislike
Paul Scholes recently featured on a new Stick to Football episode alongside Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Ian Wright and Roy Keane.
During The Overlap show, Manchester United legend Gary Neville admitted that he was “sick of seeing” teams playing out from the back.
United’s rivals Manchester City have deeply benefited from the style of play, with ex-Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola incorporating it into his team.
Keane didn’t hold back his feelings on every team trying to implement the success that Pep Guardiola has had with playing out from the back at Manchester City.
Responding to Ian Wright, he said: “Yeah, but there’s a long way to go, we’ve seen all that stats…
“When you give it away near your goal, obviously that’s a better chance for the opposition to score. You don’t mind players taking risks higher up the pitch, but when they start doing it with the goalkeeper…
“For example, there was an international [match], was it Northern Ireland the other night? The goalkeeper [Bailey Peacock-Farrell, gave the ball away and Bulgaria then scored], these are big moments for certain teams who aren’t clearly good enough to do it.”
Scholes’ reaction and Keane’s response
Scholes was critical of all teams trying to play out from the back and felt that some were doing it for the “sake” of doing it, irrespective of the outcome.
“I think a lot of them just do it for the sake of doing it without anything coming at the end of it,” he added.
Keane insisted that the blame doesn’t solely lie at the feet of Premier League teams, with the United legend taking a shot at other sides in England for using it.
“We watch a lot of League Two matches, we go and watch Salford, they try it and they’re getting caught out a lot,” he said.
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