Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has urged the club’s manager Jose Mourinho to ignore the criticism flowing in his direction, as he accused the Portuguese tactician of being too sensitive to the comments from his critics.

Mourinho has lambasted United fans and the media for a variety of reasons in recent weeks and Keane believes the former Chelsea manager takes criticism of him and his players far too personally.

“My only concern about Mourinho is that he seems to be distracted by the so-called critics out there,” stated Keane, in his role as an ITV pundit.

“He is probably paid eight, nine or ten million pounds a year so focus on your own job. Rise above that. He should be better than that, but he seems to be easily upset.

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“Shut up and get on with your job. You are getting very well paid for it.”

Keane also suggested the criticism that has flowed in the direction of Mourinho and his team despite their successful run in the first couple of months of the season has been misplaced, as he insisted the euphoria around Manchester City’s sparkling performances is affecting how United are being assessed.

“They are going along nicely and one of the problems in Manchester at the moment is United fans are looking at what City are doing, how they are playing and the goals they are getting, but United just have to keep their heads down and keep winning matches,” he continued.

“If I was a player at United now, I’d be saying keep our heads down, let’s keep chipping away. The trophies are not handed out now. Let’s keep focused, keep winning and see what happens.”

Keane also offered up a devious reason why United should retain hope than in-form Manchester City will lose momentum despite their sparkling start to the season.

“My only concern for City is that I still think it is in their DNA as a club to mess things up,” he added. “They have previous where we have got carried away with City, but they will take some stopping this year.”

Keane also served up a pretty brutal assessment of Liverpool’s hopes of winning silverware this season, as he provided this less than complimentary view on the progress being made by Jurgen Klopp’s team.

“It’s hard to figure out Liverpool at the moment, it’s hard to get excited about them,” Keane said after their 3-0 Champions League win against Maribor on Wednesday. “For me they are going nowhere fast and come the end of the season when the prizes are being handed out, Liverpool will be nowhere near.

“I think if they were playing in my back garden, I wouldn’t watch them. It’s a pretty big (garden), but let’s be honest they are going nowhere.”

Keane suggested Liverpool will not be major contenders for the game’s top competitions until Klopp solves the defensive problems, as he suggested they needed several big money signings.

“At the back, there are question marks over the goalkeeper….the defenders. I don’t have too much to say about Liverpool,” he added.

“It is easier said than done getting defensive players in. The market is pretty small when it comes to top quality defenders. We saw Man City sign some full-backs costing £50m and maybe Liverpool aren’t at that level in terms of spending.

“They need more than one defensive signing. They won’t do it in January and they probably won’t do it next summer either as they failed to do it for this season.”