He seems to play entirely on the soles of his feet.
In other words, he’s a plodder.
Only recall Steve Bruce getting skinned once in his career (against Romário and Stoichkov at the Nou Camp when Barcelona trounced United 4-0). His game intelligence meant he often positioned himself in a way that meant his lack of mobility didn’t get exposed. Without this game intelligence the opposition forwards would have had a field day, like they do against this fella Keane. That one at the edge of the penalty area today, Bruce would have ensured there wasn’t an alley on the byline to run into, Keane leaves it wide open.
Quick defenders can cover up poor positioning by making recovery tackles/blocks, intelligent defenders can cover up lack of mobility with good positioning, slow defenders with no game intelligence are ripe for being picked apart by any half decent forward, step forward
Michael Keane.
What we have here is a player who’s been the weaker half and the “follower” of every single defensive partnership he’s ever been in regardless of team and personnel. Which begs the question(s):
A. Why did we buy him?
B. Why did we spend thirty million pounds on him?
Fooled by Burnley being a tight defensive unit that sat deeep, with two banks of four, where the defenders only responsibility was to clear the ball into row Z when it was swung into the box. He did the most basic stuff at Burnley, when more is required, much much more, his weaknesses get exposed.
