Roy Keane doubled down on his criticism of Liverpool’s title defence (Image: Sky Sports)
Roy Keane has told Liverpool to accept the criticism directed at them this season after their failure to defend their Premier League title. The Reds clinched the domestic honours last season but have struggled to mount a defence this term. They currently sit sixth in the table after 24 matches and face the prospect of missing out on Champions League qualification.
Several players have come under fire throughout the campaign, with Virgil van Dijk recently addressing some of the commentary. He told Gary Neville that pundits have a ‘duty of responsibility’ with their words when discussing players, saying: “For me personally, I can deal with it, but I’m a bit worried for the next generation.
“I feel like the ex-top players have a responsibility to the new generation. Criticism is absolutely normal and part of the game, and I think it should stay that way.
“But sometimes criticism also goes into being clickbait, saying things to provoke things, and without thinking about the repercussions for a mental side of players, and especially the younger generation, who are constantly on social media.”
“You can say: ‘Yeah, you shouldn’t be on social media’. That’s what I’ve mentioned [to them] loads of times.
“There is always this thing of when you play a good game, younger players check all the positive praises, but when you have a worse game, and you’re getting bullied all over social media, or you’re getting bad criticism, it can really affect you.
“I’ve seen that in certain players in the past, and currently as well, because it’s just not easy. It’s going to get worse and worse, because the platforms nowadays, with the clickbait and the headlines, everyone is on it constantly.
“I feel like especially the ex-pros, top players, who have been through everything as well, they have this responsibility of protecting a little bit of that side as well. That’s something maybe to look at.”
Prior to Liverpool‘s clash with Manchester City, Keane maintained that the players must accept the criticism after receiving so much acclaim last season.
Virgil van Dijk recently urged certain pundits to lay off the criticism (Image: Getty)
“We were praising Liverpool all last season, they were outstanding, absolutely brilliant,” he stated.
“But when this time of the season you’re 17 points worse off than the league leaders, then you’ve got to be criticised. I think you’ve got to suck it up.
“Yes, there’s always a worry if it gets personal, yes, I can see players get upset, but when you’re criticising Liverpool’s team for being open or the amount of games they’ve lost, the way they’ve lost at home recently – guess what, you’re going to get criticised.
“Because last year when you were doing really well, and you’re celebrating with five or six games to go and you’re going off to Ibiza for weeks, you lay off the players a little bit – even though you might not like it – because you’re turning up and winning the league.
“But when you’re not and you’re so far off it like they were a number of years ago, I said and I’ll say it again, they’ve been really bad champions. They’re still in Europe and the FA Cup, whatever, but their league performances, they are going to be criticised because they’re so far off it.
“It’s very hard to win the league, it’s harder to win it back to back, but when you’re so many points off the top team, you are going to be criticised.”