Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has served up some pretty candid advice to the club's manager Jose Mourinho, after urging him to ignore the negativity of critics and focus on his job at Old Trafford.

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.

"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."

Online Editors