Rio Ferdinand has said that no player would have been able to go against Sir Alex Ferguson’s tactics when he was managing Manchester United.
United were beaten soundly by Leicester City over the weekend and having re-watched the game, Ferdinand said he was left scratching his head over a lack of game plan, compactness, unity and how disorganised the team looked.
Ferdinand asked whether players were refusing to carry out Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s instructions against Leicester, or simply whether they're unable to perform the tasks asked of them.
Speaking on his Vibe with FIVE YouTube podcast, the former United defender was asked whether there was ever a time where he or other United players chose to not listen to what their manager Sir Alex Ferguson said.
Ferdinand quickly responded: "Are you mad?
“That can’t happen. Forget the manager, the changing room wouldn’t accept that. If the player isn’t pulling his weight, the other players are on to him.”
Ferdinand was then asked if that was accepted during the reign of David Moyes, to which the former centre-back responded by saying: “No, the players are aggressive, they would be onto people.
“We just didn’t get it right under Moyes, we were just s***. There was a lot of things that didn’t happen, forget Moyes. This is about now.”
Ferdinand then assessed the problems the current United squad under Solskjaer are having and said firmly that it’s time the Norwegian demands more from his players.
He added: “For me, I have to sit there and say now, the manager has to be demanding from these players. You can’t sit there and tell me that [Jadon] Sancho hasn’t got the capacity to sprint and run to people for 90 minutes.
“You can’t tell me that [Mason] Greenwood hasn’t got the capacity to do it. Maybe [Cristiano] Ronaldo can turn it on and off but there are some times when you compensate for other players who are going to get you a goal a game, which a Ronaldo does."
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