"He is entitled to his opinion," said the Liverpool full-back on Keane's comments.
"To be honest, I don't think there were too many celebrations over in San Marino. It obviously wasn't a good result, not the one we were looking for. We just got the job done.
"But we didn't celebrate as if we had qualified or anything like that. We were just grateful to win the game. Some of the criticism that followed was rightly justified; the manager taking more stick than most.
"For not playing as well as we can, we had to expect some. But he has brought in a lot of young players. It's a transitional period.
"After failing to qualify for the last two tournaments, he has come in at a fairly difficult time. He has had to change things, and because of that he should be given time.
"We're not just playing for ourselves - we're doing it for the manager, our country and the fans.
"We all want to go in the right direction and qualify for this tournament. We definitely believe we can do that.
"There's a good squad here, and we have to believe. We can't go ruling ourselves out, even if we did make a disappointing start with the two defeats.
"But while there are games to be won, and in particular with these two home games coming up, we have to believe we can do it.
"It might come down to certain games later on in what is a tough group, but we've still a chance."