Former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke has criticised the aggressive attitude of former team-mate Roy Keane with regard to his analysis.
The ex-Republic of Ireland midfielder recently hit the headlines as he suggested that he would be “swinging punches” at Red Devils goalkeeper David de Gea after a recent error that cost his side a goal against Tottenham.
Yorke, who turned out for the Red Devils between 1998 and 2002, and was a key member of their treble winning squad of 1999, has suggested that such an attitude is the reason that Keane failed to cut it as a manager – and was one of his downfalls as a player.
“I played with him and played under him as a manager. I know what he’s like as an individual,” Yorke told The Mirror.
“You’ve just got to take it on your chin when it comes to him. He says what he likes to say. Some people buy into it, some people don’t.
“His harsh words, sometimes it’s warranted at times, but maybe the way he delivers it is how it gets under people’s skin.
“We all make mistakes. He wasn’t perfect when he played. He made mistakes along the way. He has to tone that back a little bit.
“Maybe one of the downfalls which I recognised from his management career is that the way he delivered his approach to players could be quite offensive.
“Although they needed a rollicking, there's a way of how you go about it.
“I looked at Keano in the past and sometimes it’s the way he says something which people do not take lightly and get upset by.
“De Gea knows it was a huge mistake against Tottenham. But as an ex-player, you have to be careful.
“At the end of the day, you made similar mistakes along the way. With Keano, you can only laugh when he delivers these things.
“But I dread to think if he said this kind of stuff, how players would react [today].
“That old school mentality, the Brian Clough, the Ron Atkinson, maybe even Sir Alex Ferguson at some point, you get those kinds of rollickings.
“Players of yesterday could easily dust those kinds of comments off and say: 'I’ll show you.'
“But in the modern day, things have changed. It’s the way you go about it which is important and that’s one of Keano’s problems. He doesn’t know how to deliver it.
“He was correct about De Gea making a mistake, but it was his delivery which made people sit up and think ‘wow’.”
United’s next outing is against Bournemouth on Saturday.
