Michael Keane

Was some suggestion that he and Lingard were kept back with a view to blooding them (to some extent) over the second half of the season. May still happen, especially if the faint hopes of making top 4 are completely extinguished soon, but when he can't make the squad - hell, when he's not even travelling with the squad for the Olympiakos game despite us essentially being down to two ageing injury-prone CBs (seeing as Smalling is the only RB), it looks like pretty terrible management of his development.
 
Would like to see him and Lingard get some chances in the league now. Lingard, especially, deserves his shot.
 
Would like to see him and Lingard get some chances in the league now. Lingard, especially, deserves his shot.
True... shame then that he's gone out on loan, although good that he should at least get some first team games. Can understand why Keane hasn't gone out, especially with so many injuries in defence.
 
really?

he's a bit shit, just dragging the squad down. generally a waste of space...

absolutely hate this type of question.

Your not obligated to answer, you can ignore it.

hate smart asses
 
I'd like to see him starting in the remaining league games now. Not that Rio and Vidić are of no use to us anymore but why not blood Michael Keane in whilst we have games that are of little importance and two of what should be our three first pick CBs are injured (Evans and Jones).

How good is he?

I rate him very highly. Seems to read the game well, has good positioning and awareness of what's going on around him and is good at heading the ball away and aerial duels and is very good at bringing the ball out from the back. A threat too from set pieces. Some aspects of his game remind me of a young Jonny Evans. Not the finished article but I'd be really disappointed if he didn't make it.
 
Last edited:
I'd like to see him starting in the remaining league games now. Not that Rio and Vidić are of no use to us anymore but why not blood Michael Keane in whilst we have games that are of little importance and two of what should be our three first pick CBs are injured (Evans and Jones).



I rate him very highly. Seems to read the game well, has good positioning and awareness of what's going on around him and is good at heading the ball away and aerial duels and is very good at bring the ball out from the back. A threat too from set pieces. Some aspects of his game remind me if a young Evans. Not the finished article but I'd be really disappointed if he didn't make it.

Thank you!

I haven't watched him myself so I just wanted to get some feedback from those who had. With Rio and Vida most likely gone this season would he be a bad shout for 4th choice centre back?
 
He has a bit of ability on the ball which is what I like. Its a few bonus points on top of his actual defending which is fine without being amazing, which is why I think he could make it here.
 
Blackburn, loan.

couldn't play for U21s because The FA registered Will instead this week. whoops.
 
He was named in the starting line up for todays derby against Burnley. Always a good match to watch, Live on sky at the moment.

Tom Heaton and Corrie Evans playing as well..
 
Last edited:
Great news. I hope this is a constructive loan spell for him.

I know with Vidic (and quite possibly Rio) leaving, we need reinforcements at CB. Quite honestly I would be happy with bringing just one quality, experienced CB in (Benatia, Dante, Hummels etc), and promoting this guy to the first team squad.

New CB, Evans, Smalling, Jones, M. Keane. Sorted.
 
5 central defenders is overkill. Keane needs the Premier League loan he should have been given this season.
 
5 central defenders is overkill. Keane needs the Premier League loan he should have been given this season.

Not at all. Given the number of injuries we have had to defenders over the years, it is safe to have 5. Only difference is, will we be playing in Europe this time or not? If we are not playing Europa then we can do with 4 CBs. I am not including Rio in this 4. This is assuming we buy someone in addition to Jones-Smalling-Evans. If we are playing in Europa, then it will be good to have Keane in squad and give him experience of European games, developing his game and at the same time resting key CB pair if there is key game after Thursday night on weekend.
 
If Louis van Gaal is everything he's said to be when it comes to improving young players, Michael Keane might be someone to keep around the place.
 
He looked really good the few times I saw him. If Rio & Vidic both are gone, and Evans, Jones, & Smalling weren't so injury prone, I'd have no problem him being our added CB. Now it's probably too much of a risk. Or maybe not, if Rio stays.
 
I'm hoping that we basically just replace Rio and Smalling in the squad with Thorpe and Keane. It's a risk, yes, but I think people underestimate how solid Jones, Evans and Smalling can be if they get the CB positions full-time. Plus Evans is hardly a callow youth - he's 26, with a number of title-chasing and CL campaigns under his belt. If he'd come into any team other than the one which had the best CB pairing in the world at the time, he'd have displaced one of them as first choice by now.

And it's really make or break time with Keane and Thorpe - either we take the risk now, or we sell them off. They'll stagnate otherwise.

If we get Van Gaal, I think he'd like Keane. He's a superb ball-player, solid but also more than capable of striding up the pitch in a fluid system when required.
 
I'm hoping that we basically just replace Rio and Smalling in the squad with Thorpe and Keane. It's a risk, yes, but I think people underestimate how solid Jones, Evans and Smalling can be if they get the CB positions full-time. Plus Evans is hardly a callow youth - he's 26, with a number of title-chasing and CL campaigns under his belt. If he'd come into any team other than the one which had the best CB pairing in the world at the time, he'd have displaced one of them as first choice by now.

And it's really make or break time with Keane and Thorpe - either we take the risk now, or we sell them off. They'll stagnate otherwise.

If we get Van Gaal, I think he'd like Keane. He's a superb ball-player, solid but also more than capable of striding up the pitch in a fluid system when required.

One of the main reasons I want van Gaal here is too see what he can do with the likes of Keane, Thorpe, Lingaard, Wilson, Adnan, etc etc

Would be incredibly exciting.
 
Manchester United youngster Michael Keane wants to stay and fight for his place at the club, despite interest from Blackburn Rovers.

The defender impressed during a loan spell at Ewood Park last season, but says he wishes to continue his career at Old Trafford under new manager Louis van Gaal.

Keane is one of many highly-rated youth team players at Old Trafford and he is hoping to make the step up to the first team under van Gaal, who will take charge after leading Holland at the World Cup this summer.

"That's the dream," said Keane. "I still think I've got a chance of making it at United.

"While I still think I've got that chance I will stay and try to prove myself.

"Hopefully we'll have a good pre-season and prove ourselves. If we do that, we'll have a chance to play."

http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ester-united-place-despite-blackburn-interest

Great attitude. If Van Gaal's preference for giving younger players a chance is to be believed he may well get his chance.
 
Failed to impress largely at Blackburn, was better the loan move before at Leicester. Sadly I don't think he is good enough for us, especially now both our experience center backs have left.
 
A victim of loan market stupidity. He should have had a season in the Premier League last year having performed excellently at Leicester the one before. He's very talented, so a good loan will do him the world of good. Going back to Leicester wouldn't be a bad idea, if they wanted him.
 
He was good at Leicester, but not good enough to justify a Premier League loan.
 
He was good at Leicester, but not good enough to justify a Premier League loan.

A defender who has been part of the best defensive partnership in the Championship aged 20 is certainly good enough to take a crack in a Premier League side the season after. It wasn't all too dissimilar to Jonny Evans' trajectory. Steven Caulker was handed a Premier League loan around the same age, too.
 
He was good at Leicester, but not good enough to justify a Premier League loan.
He definitely was. He formed a fantastic partnership with Wes Morgan if I remember correctly.

Even if he wouldn't have been a nailed on starter for a lower Premiership team, he's definitely good enough to be in the first team squad on a regular basis.
 
With the players at the World Cup presumably absent from the start of our tour, I would imagine he'll be heading away with us for van Gaal to take a look at.

I honestly haven't seen enough of him to make a judgement. He didn't seem to get much playing time under McLaren at Derby last season before he went to Blackburn, but that spell at Leicester the season before went well. I was quite surprised that they didn't take him back last season.
 
My real worry for him is that he's looked slow and cumbersome whenever I've seen him. I think he really needs a dominant partner alongside him to bring the best out of him.
 
I have to say i'd like United steal a couple of pages from Chelsea's book on loans. These guys are doing a top job while we end up sending people to completely wrong places in like 50% of the time or worse.
I think we need to loan him to prem team where he will get games, still probably too inexperienced for United. Does anybody know when his contract is due?
 
It comes down to a Premier League team wanting him. If no premier team came in for him after the Leicester loan then there is not a lot we can do other than put him out to the championship again.

This

So @Kag, which PL side wanted him on loan this season? Otherwise you can't justify calling the decision to loan him to Blackburn stupid.

It's damned if you do and damned if you don't with people on here. If he had gone to a PL side and sat on the bench everyone would have moaned their heads off about it....

Hopefully a PL side will want to take him next season and be willing to make him first choice. There is no guarantee though.
 
This

So @Kag, which PL side wanted him on loan this season? Otherwise you can't justify calling the decision to loan him to Blackburn stupid.

It's damned if you do and damned if you don't with people on here. If he had gone to a PL side and sat on the bench everyone would have moaned their heads off about it....

Hopefully a PL side will want to take him next season and be willing to make him first choice. There is no guarantee though.

I don't know, but I'll be terribly shocked if there wasn't offers on the table from a whole host of clubs. There always is, we just don't here about them.

Even then, and this is arguably on Moyes, he was still at the club starting September and didn't get a loan until the season was already underway. Seldom do these random one month loans work out all that successfully and his original loan seemingly didn't. After a fantastic season in the Championship, boasting his half of the best defensive partnership in the division, a few months later he was back in the U21s, which was not what a player in his stage of development required. Even if a Premier League loan had not materialised, a proper, consistent one in the Championship should certainly have for a second season running.
 
If Leicester or possibly Burnley come in with a loan bid the club should accept it without question.
 
I think we need feeder clubs in the lower divisions or probably abroad at a higher level like Belgium or Holland because it seems that the club accepts the first offer for whoever comes in to take our youngsters on loan. For some it works out and for others it doesn't.
 
I think there is an argument for selling the likes of Keane and Lingard with buy back clauses. Loans do not always incentivise the loaning club to play the lad, whereas if they have bought them there is a definite likelyhood that he'll be in the starting line-up. Lower premiership teams are more likely to take a risk on a player that they invested a couple of million on than if they've stumped up for his wages for a couple of months. If the move pays off we buy him back at a much lower fee than if he was your normal English lad moving to United. Win-win all round.