Sky Sports Dared To Troll Roy Keane After Giving Rare Praise To Fred

Roy Keane was trolled by Sky Sports after praising Manchester United midfielder Fred for his performance in their 4-2 win over Leeds United.

Fred replaced Paul Pogba in the 67th minute with the scores locked at 2-2 and many questioned interim manager Ralf Rangnick's decision.

Three minutes later however, Fred fired past Illan Meslier to restore United's lead and send them on their way to all three points.

Keane has been critical of the 28-year-old in recent months, especially after November's defeat to Manchester City, but he had words of encouragement on Sunday.

He said: "It's them little details, comes from a little bit of confidence, getting a little bit of a swagger back.

"And it's nice to see because he's been heavily criticised. And to be fair, Fred's improved in the last few months.

"Again he's adding a couple of goals to his game, a couple of assists... about time for him."

Sky Sports' Twitter account posted a snippet of that rant not long after with a caption of: "A lot can change in three months. Has Roy Keane finally been won over?"

Fred joined United from Shakhtar Donetsk in a deal worth £50 million in 2018 and became one half of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's go-to midfield alongside Scott McTominay.

He started in derby defeat to City late last year and it saw Keane go ballistic live on Sky Sports.

"Anyone who tells me Fred is good enough for Manchester United... I've said it before is living in cuckoo land - and that is an important part of the football pitch," the Irishman vented at the time.

"If Ole walked in here now I'd grab him and say 'why are you playing Fred?'"

Since then, Rangnick has arrived and continued to use the 28-year-old regularly, although Pogba's recent return from injury saw him take Fred's place in the starting XI.

Rangnick was asked about Fred coming on for Pogba in a post-match interview and explained it was purely down to energy levels.

"He [Pogba] did great but after 60 minutes he was a little bit tired, which is normal after such a long injury break, and it was great to bring on two energetic players like Fred and Anthony Elanga," Rangnick told the Manchester Evening News. "They both scored in the end.

"This is the best part of it: I didn't bring them on to score goals, it was about getting more energy to the team again and play in a similar style to we played in the first-half."