Roy Keane thinks Marcus Rashford will feel “strangely” frustrated at Aston Villa despite his impressive start following his loan move from Manchester United.

Rashford came off the bench at half-time against Chelsea in the Premier League to claim two assists to turn the game on its head and got his third Villa assist in another impressive performance in the 2-0 FA Cup win over Coventry on Friday.

Hosts Villa were frustrated in the opening 45 minutes by the Championship side, but Rashford helped find the breakthrough, putting the ball on a plate for Marco Asensio with a first-time cross from the left flank.

Asensio doubled the lead in the 80th minute and Villa held firm to secure a place in the quarter-finals for the first time since their run to the final in 2015.

“He does [shape his run intelligently] and that’s what Marcus should be doing more of,” Keane said of Rashford’s assist on ITV after Villa’s 2-0 victory.

“You give good players time on the ball and you’re in trouble. We saw it in the first half and Marcus is very good at doing that.

“This is obviously one of Marcus’ big strengths. He has a bit of luck at the end, I’m not sure he’s trying to pick out Asensio.

“But to be fair, he needs a bit of luck, he’s put it into the right area and a quality player walking onto it, one-touch finish.

“No chance for the goalkeeper. Lovely, simple, effective goal.”

No Premier League player has created more than Rashford’s 13 chances since he swapped United for Villa in January.

Having been informed of the stat, Keane said: “Strangely enough, I think Marcus has done well with the assists, but I still think he will be thinking: ‘I want to score a few goals myself’.”

Arsenal legend Ian Wright agreed that Rashford should be looking to contribute goals in the coming weeks.

“It’s still bitty. You’re still seeing quality,” Wright said.

“He got a bit fortunate in respects of that cut-back. But in the main, he’s trying to go at people, I think he could that more.

“Like Roy said, I would like to see him score a couple of goals. It’s not like he’s not trying but he’s just easing himself in, he’s getting going.”

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Keane added that he believes Villa boss Unai Emery now has something other managers of top teams don’t.

“We argue most weekends about options. We’ve seen Manchester City struggling with Haaland, obviously Arsenal,” he added.

“As a top manager with a big club, you want options and Villa have got plenty of options.

“It’s just about getting the balance right: who to put in, who to take out and it’s good for the manager.

“That’s what you need with a lot of games coming up.”

A penny for Roy Keane’s thoughts on the Manchester United snowflakes getting all upset at Ruben Amorim supposedly ‘blaming’ them for the mass redundancies at the club. They really are a bunch of “f***ing imposters”.

The head coach, in his typically erudite and amenable manner, has merely admitted that he and his failing squad of extraordinarily wealthy footballers should feel responsible for the 250 members of club staff who lost their jobs last year and the 200 further employees who have just been given their marching orders this month. Of course they should.

Around 80 per cent of the club’s outlay goes on player wages. All 450 members of staff to have been made redundant could have stayed on earning £40k if Casemiro wasn’t stealing his £18m per year living.

And sure, it’s not Casemiro’s fault he was offered that contract, but at no point did Amorim say whoever made the absurd decision to offer a 30-year-old a four-year £350,000 per week deal wasn’t also to blame, he just can’t and won’t say that, and we’re guessing the overly sensitive Manchester United players would probably also take issue with their finger-pointing manager claiming they should never have been signed in the first place.

There really is no hope for these Manchester United players if they a) don’t agree entirely with their manager’s sentiments and b) don’t at least try to use the weight of that responsibility to improve their performances to the point where they can win games of football, move up the table, qualify for the Champions League and keep the people relying on them in employment.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos misers wouldn’t need to be returning sellotape or laying off hungry staff members if the Manchester United men’s team was better at football. It’s as simple as that. And to not feel guilt or shame for failing to perform is one thing, but to be ‘frustrated at being blamed’ is beyond the pale. As Keane would say, just do your jobs.

That frustration would be valid if these players were performing at their peaks and being blamed for not being good enough but let’s face it, even though this is not a great United squad, not one of those players has played anywhere close to their best this season. And there’s nothing – not the pressure of the club, the change of manager, Amorim’s system – that can excuse just how bad they’ve been individually and collectively.

This mess is on the Glazers, it’s on Ratcliffe, it’s on Erik ten Hag, it may also be a bit on Amorim, but it’s also definitely on them, and being put out by Amorim suggesting that them being sh*t isn’t conducive to the club being successful points to a stunning lack of self awareness and a Passing The Buck ethos that needs to stamped out if this club is going to climb out of the doldrums.

We imagine Gary Neville and the Stick to Football producers are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of pointing their camera at Keane and asking him about his thoughts on this latest case of the “f***ing imposters” at Old Trafford complaining about their manager’s hard truths about their predicament rather than doing something about it.

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“Forget the board and all that for a second,” Keane said in his extraordinarily angry rant this week. “The players who walk on the pitch, who do you start pointing fingers at?” All of them is the answer.

With Antony and Marcus Rashford following Jadon Sancho out of the club they’re running out of scapegoats, who are enjoying the green grass of pastures new because they’re not in an environment where adults act like toddlers, failing to take responsibility for their actions which have very real consequences for people who need to worry about how they’re going to pay their gas bill or nursery fees next month.

We appreciate that times have changed, hairdryers are no longer in use and kicking boots into faces isn’t The Done Thing, but these Manchester United players need to be given a reality check, to think beyond their bubble, because these people losing their jobs is on them.

Rightly or wrongly they were signed by Manchester United – MANCHESTER UNITED – and they presumably thought they were worthy of that honour when they signed the paperwork. Well, f***ing prove it then.