Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane has claimed that he sees cause for optimism in the clubs progress over recent months but still believes they have “a long way back” before challenging dominant duo of Liverpool or Manchester City.
The red half of Manchester have endured an inconsistent season under Keane’s former team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this season yet the 20-time English champions headed into the coronavirus-enforced break in form pulling together a string of results.
Solskjaer’s side went on an unbeaten run 11 games and moved up to fifth in the Premier League, inspired by the January arrival of Portuguese midfielder Bruno Fernandes.
Former Ireland and Manchester United captain Keane is looking for United to have a strong finish to the remainder of the season once it returns, but he recognizes there remains a sizeable gap between fierce rivals Liverpool and Manchester City, the runaway league leaders and defending champions respectively.
While speaking to Sky Sports, Keane explained that there is a feel food factor at Old Trafford with the football being played under the Norwegian, “I think there’s certainly a feel-good factor back at United over the past number of games,”
The seven-time Premier League champions also hinted that there are a few top players to come back from injury to finish off the season but the Premier League side are still some way behind Liverpool and Man City, “Also, in the back of your mind, you’re thinking if [Paul] Pogba can get back, people like [Marcus] Rashford can get fit towards the end of the season, that would be a big boost for them. So there’s definitely a feel-good factor, but there’s still a long way back for United yet. I still think they’re a long way behind City and, obviously, Liverpool. The signs are a lot better than six months ago, 12 months ago. The signings have all settled in very, very well and will only get better with time.”
