Man Utd: Ferdinand blasts Ten Hag over ‘unfair’ treatment of star with Red Devils looking ‘uncoached’
Rio Ferdinand has hit out at Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag for continuing to play Casemiro at centre-back after their 1-0 loss to Arsenal on Sunday.
The Brazilian partnered Jonny Evans at centre-back again as a Leandro Trossard tap-in settled the match at Old Trafford and saw the Gunners take the Premier League title race to the final day of the season.
Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof are all out injured and experienced midfielder Casemiro has filled in on four occasions now.
But Man Utd legend Ferdinand was annoyed that Ten Hag played Casemiro out of position again over the weekend and reckons the Dutchman should’ve played Sofyan Amrabat at right-back with Aaron Wan-Bissaka moving into central defence.
Following their defeat to Arsenal, Ferdinand said on his Vibe with FIVE YouTube channel: “When is he (Erik ten Hag) going to take Casemiro out of the back line?
“Why can’t Sofyan Amrabat play there? Or Scott McTominay? I just don’t think it’s fair.
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“If you see a few mistakes from someone who is playing there, who has never played there before, and you see the mistakes early, you should go, ‘You know what, I’m not going to do this to you’ – I don’t care how experienced he is.
“Come on, move him out of there and get back to the position he knows. Play Aaron Wan-Bissaka there.
“Then you could have Amrabat at right-back. That’s the most natural thing for me. Wan-Bissaka at centre-back and Amrabat at right-back. He was happy to play him at left-back for a few games.
“We looked like an uncoached team. At the creative end of the pitch, we were lacking massively. Decision-making and quality was not there.”
Ten Hag: They don’t have any knowledge about football
But Ten Hag has hit back at critics of Man Utd for not having “any knowledge about football” despite the Red Devils recent record of just one win in eight Premier League matches.
“I think the fans have the patience – you’ve seen it on Monday,” Ten Hag said before their loss to Arsenal.
“But when I see some comments, they don’t. And either they don’t have any knowledge about football, or they don’t have any knowledge about managing a football team. It’s possible, or they just are up to it.
“But I think there are many people that see the problems and they are patient.”
When asked on Sunday whether looking at the positives from a home defeat showed how low Man Utd have sunk, Ten Hag told reporters: “It shouldn’t be like this, you are absolutely right, but then I return to all the problems we have.
“When you analyse the performance, you have to see then that we were competitive. That is not the way we want of course, United have to win every game, but at this moment as a club we are not in this position, and definitely not this team with all the injuries we have.”
