Roy Keane: Manchester United's Midfield Good but Short of Title Aspirations
Roy Keane likes plenty about Manchester United’s new-look midfield. He just doesn’t see a title in it.
Speaking on Stick to Football, the former United captain weighed up the club’s summer reshuffle in the middle of the pitch – including the potential arrival of Carlos Baleba and the impact of Kobbie Mainoo under Michael Carrick – and came to a blunt conclusion: good, but nowhere near good enough for a Premier League crown.
“I think that’s a good way of putting it, a good midfield,” Keane said when asked if Baleba’s signing would complete the unit. “But if you’re on about winning the league, I think it’s short.”
He likes the depth. He likes the balance. He sees goals.
United’s attacking threat, particularly after Carrick stepped in last season, drew rare praise from one of the club’s harshest judges.
“That midfield and going forward, there is a big goal threat at United, they were very good last year with it, especially when Carrick took over they were a real goal threat.”
The problem, in Keane’s eyes, sits right behind them.
Defence still the ‘big issue’
For all the talk about new faces in midfield and the excitement around Mainoo, Keane kept circling back to the same fault line: the back four.
“United’s big problems are still going to be defensively,” he said, before drilling down into the details. “The issue is at the back, the full-backs and the two centre-halves are still a big issue.”
On paper, he accepts, the midfield reads well. Names that “jump out as really good players.” But when the conversation moves from top-four contention to title-winning calibre, his stance hardens.
“Is there a league-winning midfield there? Probably not. No, I don’t see it.”
That’s the gap as Keane sees it. A squad that can threaten, entertain, maybe even excite for stretches of a season – but not one built to outlast Manchester City, Arsenal and the rest over 38 games.
Tielemans praised – then parked below the elite
One of the headline arrivals, Youri Tielemans at £35m, drew a more nuanced verdict.
Keane welcomed the fact United appear to have stepped away from the kind of heavy, long-term wage commitments that defined the Casemiro deal, and he framed Tielemans as a sensible, lower-risk move.
“Tielemans is a safety bet for United,” he said. “Over the last few years, Casemiro is a good example, players have come in huge money, big wages.”
This, Keane argued, is different. Tielemans is proven in the Premier League, a regular international, and already familiar with the Old Trafford stage after impressing there with Aston Villa.
“Tielemans knows the Premier League, is a good international, having gone to Old Trafford with Vila and had success he will be fine with the expectation.”
Reliable. Experienced. Comfortable with the pressure.
But transformative? Keane doesn’t buy it.
“But will he get United to the very top? No.”
So United emerge from the summer with what Keane calls a “good midfield”, a stronger bench, and a safer wage bill. The question he leaves hanging is the one that has dogged the club for a decade: who in this squad actually drags them back to the very top?
