Roy Keane believes the days of everyone wanting to join Manchester United have ended after the club suffered an 18th defeat of the season at Chelsea, which he felt proved they “aren’t really good at anything”.

United lost 1-0 thanks to Marc Cucurella’s second-half winner to leave them on 39 points with one game – at home to Champions League-chasing Aston Villa – remaining.

The 18th league loss of the season is their most in half a century, while they have picked up just two points since the start of April – the lowest out of any side in the Premier League.

Ruben Amorim’s side can get Champions League football by winning the Europa League, but they go into that final without a league win in eight matches.

“What are the positives with this team?” said former United captain Keane.

“You sit up and watch certain teams, and you hang your hat on something. You say they’re really technically very good, they’re fit, they’re brilliant, they’re good at set-pieces. You look at United and go, they’re not really good at anything.

“If they don’t win [the Europa League final] next week, I think the days of everyone wanting to go to Manchester United are gone. I don’t think there’ll be players looking to sign for Manchester United. That’s gone, that bit of excitement with the club.

“The fans, even here tonight, I don’t think the United fans are angry anymore. It’s just an acceptance. Even the manager’s interview there, he’s accepting where they are.

“Now, obviously, you have to be realistic, but you still want to show emotion and a bit of anger. I think United fans will be going back up the motorway to Manchester tonight going: ‘Oh, that’s what we thought would probably happen.’ And that’s a sad thing to do.

“And I don’t think the manager [Amorim] did. And more importantly, I don’t think the players believed they could come and win tonight.

“And even the Chelsea manager [Enzo Maresca], he’s patronising them by saying: ‘Oh, they played well, they pressed us, they were 1v1. They’re dangerous. We watched them a few times.’

“They beat them 1-0. And United had one shot on target. One shot on target. He’s just like, what they’re doing to United, they’re patting them on the head going saying, ‘off you go, back up to Manchester’.

“That’s what United used to do to teams years ago. Now they’re getting it. And they’ve got to respond to that. Don’t accept that nonsense.”