Now, this is probably more like what Roy Keane would have wanted to hear, even if it mightn’t go down as well in the Man United dressing room.
If they were being honest, no Manchester United player could realistically defend themselves and their teammates after last night’s shambolic display in defeat to Olympiacos, but unlike Michael Carrick, Robin van Persie saw fit to tell a few home truths afterwards.
The Dutchman has not looked particularly happy on numerous occasions this season and in the aftermath of defeat last night, he made a few points about the performance that don’t exactly reflect well on David Moyes’ management, given that it implied a sense of confusion amongst the players on the pitch.
“Our fellow players are sometimes occupying the spaces I want to play in,” Van Persie told Dutch TV station NOS after the game.
“And when I see that it makes it difficult for me to come to those spaces as well. So that forces me to adjust my runs, based on the position of my fellow players. And unfortunately, they’re often playing in my zones. I think that’s a shame.”
On Moyes, Van Persie added: “He’s working hard at it, and so are we. Sometimes we play well, but not all the time. We don’t have luck on our side. It’s easy to point the finger at someone, but I’m not like that. We have to do better ourselves.”
Van Persie, of course, could have made it a lot easier for United in the return leg had he converted a relatively simple chance late on, but instead he blazed over the bar with his right foot from close range.
“I rushed that shot,” Van Persie added.
“That’s a shame because I don’t get a lot of chances so when you get one, you have to score.”
Asked whether United can turn it around in the home leg, Van Persie said: “It is still possible, because with all due respect to Olympiacos, we should be able to win 3-0 at home.
“It is not that they were fantastic, we just mostly failed.”
Ouch.
