Ferdinand names player who Man Utd should sign to help solve striker crisis

Joe Williams
Man Utd legend Rio Ferdinand looks at the crowd

Rio Ferdinand thinks Danny Welbeck would’ve started for Man Utd on Sunday had he been in the Old Trafford ranks and not Brighton’s.

The Red Devils put in a disappointing performance to start the Erik ten Hag era at Old Trafford as Brighton dominated the first half of a 2-1 defeat for Man Utd.

United did look more threatening in the second half but overall it was a poor display as they started the season in a similar fashion to how they ended the last.


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Marcus Rashford started up top for Man Utd with Anthony Martial injured and Cristiano Ronaldo not match fit after missing all but 45 minutes of pre-season.

Welbeck, who scored 32 goals in 126 matches for the Red Devils, provided a brilliant forward display at Old Trafford and Ferdinand reckons he would start for Man Utd at the moment.

Speaking on his Vibe with Five YouTube channel, Ferdinand commented: “Danny Welbeck starts for Man United today [Sunday] in this game.

“Welbeck walked out of that tunnel and you could see, shoulders back, chest out, thinking – ‘I will terrorise these two [Martinez and Maguire]’.

“That’s how he played today, he looked like prime-time Danny Welbeck at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid 10 years ago.”

On whether Man Utd should sign Welbeck if they had the opportunity to, Ferdinand added: “On today’s performance, no doubt. If you want a back-up striker, you wouldn’t go far wrong with Danny Welbeck.

“Say to him, ‘you’re going to play 15/20 games over the season, fill in for Cristiano’. It gives us the legs, gives us the movement – the running behind defenders like he did today and it frees up the space for the likes of Bruno.”

Portugal international Diogo Dalot is not getting too disheartened by their poor start to the new season and he expects results to come for Man Utd sooner rather than later.

Dalot said: “Obviously, that is what we are here for. This result is not going to take our heads off the path we need to do.

“It is a setback but in football you don’t have time to think a little bit, now we have to analyse and definitely do better.

“There were still some positives, the second half we had some good plays, we were a little bit more organised. We are going to have some time this week to organise and definitely do better for Brentford.”