Roy Keane has been conditioned to hate Liverpool for a long time.
His disdain for Arsenal goes back a long way, too, and he’s not too fond of Manchester City either, as you’d expect from an ex-Manchester United captain.
But Keane gets his message across on the sofa rather than the pitch these days and his comments on Liverpool’s fortunes in the Champions League have made for interesting viewing this season.
The outspoken Cork native is a regular on ITV’s Champions League highlights programme alongside Lee Dixon. Earlier in the season, Keane said he found Liverpool difficult to get excited about. The Reds, he felt, would not trouble the established European order of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
However, after Liverpool dumped Manchester City out to join Real, Bayern and Roma in the semi-finals, Keane was asked to revisit his comments from earlier in the season.
“They have improved defensively over the last few months and I think you have to give the manager and the players a lot of credit for that,” Keane said.
“So have you changed your mind a bit?” Pougatch responded. “Because this is what you said on the show last Autumn. You said: ‘Win the league and the Champions League? No. Forget about it.
“‘I think they have enough to get through the group but later on against Real Madrid and all the big boys they will be laughing at Liverpool.'”
“And what did I say after that? The defence.
“That was always the big concern for me. Earlier in the season some of the performances away at Man City, away at Spurs, you just felt they were going to concede, especially against the biggest teams.
“But they have improved that over the last few months. With the signing [of Virgil van Dijk] they have a settled back four, Andy Robertson has come in and done really well.
“[Klopp] is obviously sticking with the same goalkeeper now and there’s a lot of confidence in the back four. Again, the players deserve huge credit.
“Van Dijk has come in and been a big presence himself, but he’s certainly helped the players around him and that’s what the good players do.”
You can watch Keane and Pougatch below.
