Former Liverpool defender Phil Thompson has defended RB Leipzig's Dayot Upamecano after criticism of the star by Rio Ferdinand.
Manchester United legend Ferdinand was less than impressed with Upamecano's performance in the German side's 5-0 humbling by the Red Devils at Old Trafford.
The centre-half, who has been linked with both United and Liverpool, was given the runaround as Marcus Rashford emerged from the bench to score a 16-minute hat-trick.
Ferdinand pulled no punches in his assessment of Upamecano's display, comparing him to a 'schoolboy' following the game.
"He made defenders who we were marvelling about before the game, who we saw last season play really well in the Champions League, he made them look like schoolboys tonight," he said of Rashford's display.
"This is about being ruthless but I thought Upamecano had a nightmare today."
But Thompson was quick to point out that Ferdinand himself had some bad games during his illustrious and highly-successful playing career.
"I’ve seen he’s been linked with Liverpool as well as Man Utd now, and of course, after their result, you’d be wondering whether it’s the right call," he told Paddy Power.
"Though on saying that, you could say the same thing about Virgil van Dijk if you had only ever seen him play in that game against Aston Villa.
"You have your off days – everyone does. RB Leipzig have had a fantastic start to their season, they didn’t look like that in the second half at Old Trafford, United were all over them.
"Upamecano was all over the place, but so was the entire team. But don’t be fooled. He’s a very good defender and there’ll be a lot of people looking at him because he is making a lot of waves.
"There’s not a lot of quality centre-backs available in Europe at the moment, and I know Rio Ferdinand wasn’t happy with his performance… But I think I remember Rio having one or two bad games himself!
"One or two shockers, it happens to everybody. He’s had a couple of shockers as a pundit, too, we’ve all seen the ‘give it to Ole!’ rant a million times."
