Ferdinand lays into Man United defender for Arsenal comments

Matt Stead
Rio Ferdinand Man Utd Liverpool

Rio Ferdinand has questioned the Manchester United captaincy credentials of Harry Maguire.

Maguire was made permanent United skipper in January 2020, mere months after joining from Leicester.

But the 27-year-old has struggled for consistency of late, compounded by his suggestion that Manchester United lost to Arsenal because winning one game in a row made them “complacent”.


READ MORE: 16 Conclusions on Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal


Ferdinand has called Maguire out on those comments and wonders whether he takes enough of the lead in the dressing room.

“We’re lacking confidence in certain areas,” he said on the Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE YouTube channel.

“We gained a bit of confidence in midweek but do they get too overconfident?

“I saw Harry Maguire and a couple of his comments after the game saying maybe they were patting each other on the back too much. Get a hold of that team – he’s the captain.

“I hope he’s getting in there and getting round people and telling people ‘listen, we aren’t the finished article, we’ve got loads to do, there is more from us to come, pull your socks up’.”

Troy Deeney will be delighted.

“I don’t know if that’s going on. The captain of Man Utd. There’s always been leaders in that changing room who would be going round and drilling people, either one-to-one or in front of the group. Pulling people aside, having little conversations to get people up, to make sure they stay on their game.

“I remember Nani, I didn’t chat to him really, it was two or three words, ‘assists and goals’ or ‘shoot on sight’. Boom, that’s it. It doesn’t need an essay of words. Sometimes it’s short and sharp, punchy little things.

“Are these conversations going on? It isn’t just for the management to deal with that, sometimes the players in that dressing room need to stand up and put it on people.”

There are no Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester City representatives in our rundown of the top ten players of the season. Nor Manchester United, of course, but Jay Rodriguez gets in?!