Roy Keane has made a baffling claim about Kalvin Phillips in the build up to West Ham’s 3-0 loss to Manchester United.

While West Ham fans would all agree that they had a poor transfer window, the large majority of them were delighted with the arrival of Kalvin Phillips on loan from Manchester City. Unfortunately, he has not had the best start to life in claret and blue, being on the receiving end of two poor passes which ended up leading to goals for the opposition.

Despite this, Manchester United legend Roy Keane believes that the midfielder will be absolutely furious that he was benched for the Hammers trip to Old Trafford.

“From the player’s point of view I think he’d be fuming,” Keane said on Sky Sports ahead of kickoff. “You go to get some games, he played 70 minutes, he’s a sitting midfielder, you use your intelligence there in terms of when to sprint and when to sit in.”

“Obviously David Moyes will be worried about it in terms of picking up an injury quickly but from the player’s point of view, he has to get minutes under his belt, he has to get games.”

“Remember he’s on loan from City, he’s going to Old Trafford and now he’s sitting on the bench. Obviously David Moyes is an experienced manager but I think from the player’s point of view, he’ll be fuming.”

As much as Phillips would obviously prefer to be starting, there is little reason to believe that he would be annoying about being on the bench. He has barely played at all since leaving Leeds and is clearly lacking match sharpness. 

Undoubtedly, not much blame can be placed on him for the goal against Bournemouth but he hardly had an inspiring debut either way. 

Phillips will be a brilliant player for West Ham, but he needs time to settle in and find his fitness. Starting two games within four days is not the way to go about it, and you would have thought that Keane would understand that.