Roy Keane highlights Manchester United’s problem after Man City derby defeat

Erik ten Hag’s side were comfortably out-played by their rivals in a 3-1 defeat

Manchester United were well beaten by Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium (Getty Images)

Roy Keane believes that Manchester United’s inability to build “consistency of performance” leaves serious questions over manager Erik ten Hag after a derby-day defeat to Manchester City.

Having gone in front through Marcus Rashford’s fine early goal, Manchester United were comfortably out-played by their rivals to slip to a 3-1 loss.

It was an 11th league defeat of the season for Ten Hag’s side as they lost ground in the chase for a top-four place to both Aston Villa and Tottenham.

While highlighting Manchester City’s excellence, Keane was nonetheless disappointed at his former side’s problems becoming more than just a team of “moments”.

“I can’t be too hard on Manchester United today as City were just brilliant,” Keane said on Sky Sports.“They showed why they’re champions. That’s 11 league losses now for United. That’s one scary stat and what City do is they find out all your shortcomings.

“When you’re out on that pitch and it’s tough, there’s no hiding place. It’s like in boxing. City wore and wore them down. United had to take Jonny [Evans] off after around 60 minutes. They had to change the back four and they were hanging on anyway.

“It still leaves that question mark over where this United team are going. In the last 25 minutes, they couldn’t get anywhere near City, who toyed with them.

Phil Foden’s double helped Manchester City to derby victory (Getty Images)

“It was men vs boys in the end and they were just hanging in there. Towards the end, you’re thinking it could be four or five. There’s still question marks about this team and unfortunately about the manager.

“The problem is that this team is still all about moments. When you’ve invested all that money and the quality they have, you need a bit more than that.

“It’s more the games we’ve seen over the last few months where they’ve lacked that consistency of performance. United have just been digging out results but eventually that catches up with you. The bigger picture is that you need more.”

Manchester United sit sixth in the table, six points behind Spurs and 11 back from Aston Villa in fourth.

They host Everton in their next Premier League fixture on Saturday.