Roy Keane has claimed that Erik ten Hag will be left feeling "hugely disappointed" over the international break, despite Manchester United reaching the FA Cup semi-finals.
The Red Devils beat Fulham 3-1 on Sunday and booked another trip to Wembley, where they'll face an in-form Brighton side, but Ten Hag's men can count themselves lucky to be in the final four after their opponents hit the self-destruct button. Having been 1-0 up with 20 minutes to go, Fulham disgracefully saw three men sent off in the space of 60 seconds to completely to turn the tide at Old Trafford, with United ruthlessly coming from behind to punish them.
A blatant handball from Willian on the goal-line to concede a penalty, along with Aleksandar Mitrovic 's foolish barge on referee Chris Kavanagh, and manager Marco Silva 's over-the-top protests, saw three red cards dished out and gave the Red Devils a huge let-off. Fulham had been the better side up until that point which Keane made note of in his typically scathing post-match analysis.
"The manager will still be hugely disappointed. Man United were so poor it was almost unbelievable," the United legend told ITV. "They've found a way in the previous [FA Cup] games. Today was just self-destruction from Fulham. You need a bit of luck and they've certainly had their fair share this season."
What's perhaps more concerning for Red Devils fans is that their team hasn't looked the same since ending their six-year trophy drought in February, winning the Carabao Cup. Narrowly beating West Ham in the previous FA Cup round before that 7-0 defeat to arch rivals Liverpool, United drew 0-0 with rock bottom Southampton a week before edging past Fulham.
Although the latter result was sandwiched between a 5-1 aggregate victory over Real Betis in the Europa League last 16, Keane has growing doubts regarding Ten Hag and co's form heading into the final stretch of what's so far been a strong campaign. "I've lost a bit of confidence watching United recently," the ex-Red Devils captain went on to say.
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"In the last few games, they've picked up some bad habits. If they turn up with that attitude in the semi-final, Brighton will beat them. Hopefully the manager gives them a bit of a kick up the back-side."
Ten Hag did admit that United had some shortcomings in Sunday's win, but wasn't overly critical after two goals from Bruno Fernandes and a crucial strike from Marcel Sabitzer sent them to Wembley for the second time this term. "We had to work hard against a good Fulham," the Dutchman explained.
"But I think we created some good pressing moments and from then on we had really good attacking transitions with great opportunities to score a goal, which we didn't. At half-time we should have been one or two up. Second half we lost a little bit of control, great saves from David [de Gea], and then a great counter-attack from Antony and Jadon Sancho."
