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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Theo Squires

'F*****g idiot' - Roy Keane reveals Liverpool player who angered him against Man United

Roy Keane might be a popular pundit these days, but for 15 years the Manchester United legend was a player Liverpool fans just loved to hate.

The nasty heartbeat of Sir Alex Ferguson's Premier League-dominating side, the Irishman would line up 26 times against the Reds during his career for Forest and United. A tough-tackling midfielder, he received more bookings against Liverpool (11) than any other side before hanging up his boots.

Yet Keane was far more than a hatchet man, as Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher would insist when appearing alongside the former United midfielder at a live recent edition of The Overlap on Tour.

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"Roy was a brilliant passer of the ball," Carragher said. "And everything went through him from the back four. So in terms of beating Manchester United it wouldn’t be a case of let’s have a fight, let’s do a bad tackle - things like that. It would almost be like ‘stop him getting the ball’. Stop Manchester United playing."

However, Keane, visibly uncomfortable at receiving such praise would then interrupt Carragher and take the opportunity to two-foot one of his former Liverpool team-mates with an anecdote of his own - Danny Murphy.

"Do you know who had a go at me one time at Old Trafford?" Keane said. "Danny Murphy. He’s shouting his mouth off. F*****g Danny Murphy!

"I was in shock. I was like: ‘Relax yourself’. He was like *yap* *yap* *yap* and whatever. F***ing idiot! Danny f***ing Murphy."

Murphy would be the scourge of United himself during his own playing days, famously scoring three winners for Liverpool at Old Trafford. He would face United more than any other side during his career, locking horns with the Red Devils 28 times. Emerging victorious nine times, he would return five goals and two assists in total.

Meanwhile, Murphy would actually manage something that Keane never did - receive a red card in a Liverpool vs Manchester United match. The former England international was sent off for a second bookable offence in the Reds' 2-0 victory at Anfield in March 2001, just a few months after his first Old Trafford winner.

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