Rio Ferdinand has picked out four Manchester United stars who are unsuited to Ruben Amorim’s system at the club, claiming the Red Devils boss needs to seek alternative players to meet his tactical and physical demands.
United showed some welcome grit at Old Trafford on Wednesday, coming from behind twice against relegation-threatened Ipswich to claim a crucial three points to lift them above Everton into 14th place in the Premier League.
Patrick Dorgu gifted Ipswich the opener early in the piece after a complete lack of communication with Andre Onana saw him pass the ball to Jaden Philogene, who tapped the ball into an empty net.
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A Sam Morsy own goal drew United level before Matthijs de Ligt gave the Red Devils the lead after some pinball in the box.
But it’s never plain sailing for Amorim’s side and they were reduced to ten men after Dorgu was given his marching orders for a horror challenge on Omari Hutchinson.
Philogene scored again to draw the visitors level, as Liam Delap waved a leg at his cross, which went all the way through to beat Onana at the far post.
United looked set for another implosion, but Harry Maguire put them back in front soon after half-time and they clung onto their lead relatively comfortably despite being on the back foot for the second half.
Ferdinand gave his thoughts on the state of play at the club after the game, claiming Amorim just needs to get through to the end of the season in order to regroup and picking out four players he believes aren’t fit for purpose.
Ferdinand said on TNT Sports: “‘I think if we’re being brutally honest, there hasn’t been the progress that we all anticipated.
“Where he came from, how successful he had been and the silverware he brought to Sporting, the anticipation of him coming was like, ‘Wow! What an opportunity we’ve got now with this young manager’, and it hasn’t transferred here.
“I sat with him the other day and you can see there’s a desire, there’s a work ethic behind the scenes and he’s nipping at everything to try and get this right and turn it around, but things haven’t been smooth for him and he hasn’t managed to get it to where he wants to at this point in time.”
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Ferdinand added: “I think he needs to just get to the end of the season, really regroup and then start building again, building the team and coaching the team because right now they’ve been stuttering along and that’s probably being polite.
“I watched Sporting a few times, in Europe especially. They were an athletic, dynamic team. That was one of the staples of that team, the hallmarks of that good team that was winning things.” He continued, “This team aren’t a mobile, dynamic team. If you look through the heartbeat of this team they have other qualities but being physical, having the ability to overrun teams physically – they don’t have that capacity.
Asked whether Zirkzee is the type of player that suits Amorim, Ferdinand answered, “No… De Ligt, Maguire, Hojlund, it’s not their game. So I think he needs to find those type of players with the capabilities of carrying out not only tactically what he wants, but the physicality is equally important.”
