Roy Keane slammed Kyle Walker over an ’embarrassing’ incident during Sunday’s Manchester derby and called for the Manchester City star to be sent off. Walker attempted to get Manchester United forward Rasmus Hojlund in trouble by falling to the floor in an angry head-to-head exchange.
Hojlund was incensed when he was tripped by Walker in the 39th minute. The Danish star confronted his City rival and the pair went head to head.
Neither player nudged their head forwards, which would have resulted in a red card for violent conduct. But Walker still appeared hopeful of seeing Hojlund dismissed by falling to the floor and holding his face. City’s players demanded that referee Anthony Taylor produced a red card.
However, Taylor chose to only book both players and VAR confirmed his decision. Walker was criticised in the Sky Sports studio at half-time.
Asked if he would have given a red card in the incident, a furious Keane responded: “Yeah – to Walker! You don’t mind it, this is going to happen in a game, a bit of argy-bargy.
“It’s a foul, Hojlund’s not happy, that’s fine. But Walker… Walker must be embarrassed. He must be embarrassed to go down like that. There’s no contact, I’m embarrassed.
“I don’t know the guy [but] I’m embarrassed for him.”
Fellow Sky Sports pundit and former City player Micah Richards added of Walker’s actions: “He’s better than that.”
Keane quipped: “Is he? I’m not so sure!”
“It’s quite embarrassing,” Richards concluded.
Speaking on commentary, Gary Neville had initially suspected that Hojlund had headbutted Walker due to the City player’s reaction. The former United defender said: “I did this in a derby against Steve McManaman many years ago and got sent off for it. It’s whether he (Hojlund) makes that little rock of his head forwards. If he does, he’s in trouble. If he doesn’t then Kyle Walker has dived.”
Replays made it clear that Walker had indeed feigned an injury. Neville continued: “It’s poor from Kyle Walker because [under] the initial contact, he doesn’t go down. He goes down when he realised there might have been contact. He’ll be a little bit embarrassed when he sees that back.”
United boss Ruben Amorim would have been pleased to keep Hojlund on the pitch. The 21-year-old is one of few players who have started the Portuguese boss’ tenure well, scoring five goals in five games before the short trip to City.
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