Rio Ferdinand hails Pochettino’s ‘biggest asset’ and identifies key to his Man Utd rebuild
Rio Ferdinand has picked out Mauricio Pochettino’s “biggest asset” as he prepares to take the reins at Manchester United and has identified the key to him rebuilding the club.
Carrick is still the Man Utd manager and took training on Wednesday as CEO Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox flew out to Monaco for their regularly scheduled meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe to ratify the decision to send him packing.
Although Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann were favourites to replace him at Old Trafford, Pochettino has nipped in ahead of them and has reportedly reached a ‘full agreement’ to take the helm.
Fabrizio Romano has revealed when Pochettino is expected to arrive in a blow to preparation for their trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool in ten days’ time and what Omar Berrada has “already” told him about the January transfer window.
Ferdinand says Pochettino’s name “jumps off the list” of candidates for one key reason.
He said on his YouTube channel: “I look at Pochettino, and one of his biggest assets is that human element of his management and building confidence with his players.
“That’s a big part of Manchester United at the moment because we’ve got far too many broken individuals.”
“I look at that group of names and think Pochettino is the one that jumps off the list as someone who has more of the things we’re looking for to save and build a group of players.
“The standards have dropped massively, so let’s be realistic about where we are. There’s a process to get back there; we need to stabilise and get back in the Champions League again.”
Ferdinand believes that “building team moral” is key to Pochettino turning Man Utd around.
“At Spurs he had Harry Kane, Son Heung-Min, a firing Dele Alli among others with Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld and those type of guys — really good players,” Ferdinand added.
“At Paris Saint-Germain he had some of the biggest, best names in the world, so he’s got a wealth of experience of managing high-profile players. But he’s got to get a team that works together. He’s got to build team morale. Their morale, their confidence is on its knees, it’s below the decks.
“How is he going to go about building that? He’s got to rebuild individuals, fractured mindsets, players with deep scars who have been hurt time and time again because of a lack of consistency, low finishes in the Premier League, being knocked out of tournaments and cup competitions early.
“How does he rebuild those guys? When you’re recruiting someone, the next manager like Pochettino, they’ve got to be some of the questions that Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada are asking.
“‘Tell us how you’re going to go and rebuild these players in this team to start representing this football club the way we need it to be’.”
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