Man Utd appointed Ruud van Nistelrooy (right) as assistant manager in the summer (Image: GETTY)
Manchester United assistant manager Ruud van Nistelrooy has faced the wrath of his former Arsenal nemesis Martin Keown, who has questioned whether the Dutchman is giving all he can to support Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag.
Van Nistelrooy was brought back to Old Trafford in the summer after bagging 150 goals in 219 appearances for the Red Devils during his playing days.
But he has been unable to help Ten Hag turn the team’s fortunes around following an eighth-place top-flight finish last season.
And Keown has claimed Van Nistelrooy may be holding back as he is waiting in the wings to take the top job at the club. “I’m looking at Van Nistelrooy,” Keown told talkSPORT. “Is he giving everything to this manager?
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“This manager looks very lonely on the sideline. Is Van Nistelrooy waiting to take over? Because it looks as if there’s going to be change taking place there. Is everyone adding to the group? I’m not seeing that from Van Nistelrooy. Ten Hag is just sitting there, nothing going on, no conversation.
“[At Manchester City] Pep [Guardiola] goes back and speaks to the gurus next to him. Is everybody looking in the mirror at themselves giving their best?
“It doesn’t look like the players are committed, it doesn’t look like the staff are particularly committed. It’s a lone man in the dugout.
“You hope that that group of players is there in the dressing room right now and maybe tries to police it because it’s not unusual. It wouldn’t have been [unusual] in our dressing room to have the occasional meeting where we had to try to bash out where things were wrong, where things weren’t going well.”
Van Nistelrooy and Keown famously clashed on the pitch after the striker had missed a crucial penalty in a Premier League showdown between United and Arsenal in September 2003.
The former England defender leapt on Van Nistelrooy after the ball had cannoned back off the crossbar and shouted in his rival’s face. The match ended 0-0, with the result allowing Arsenal the opportunity to go on and win the title without losing a single game.
