Rio Ferdinand says Joshua Zirkee, Matthijs de Ligt, Harry Maguire and Rasmus Hojlund may lack the ‘dynamism’ and ‘athleticism’ required to suit the playing style that Ruben Amorim wishes to implement at Manchester United.
Rio Ferdinand tells four Man Utd stars that their game doesn’t suit Ruben Amorim | Football
United recovered from conceding a calamitous Jaden Philogene goal to beat Ipswich 3-2 this evening, with Maguire heading home what proved to be the winner at the start of the second half at Old Trafford.
Amorim’s side had appeared to be firmly in the box seat as Matthijs de Ligt struck after Sam Morsy’s own goal to hand United the lead for the first time in the match in the 26th minute.
But Philogene scored his second of the night after Patrick Dorgu was shown a straight red card in a breathless conclusion to the first period to give Ipswich hope at the break.
The Red Devils dug deep and held firm after Maguire’s powerful 47th-minute header, though, to leapfrog Everton into 14th place in the Premier League table.
‘Today I’m not frustrated,’ United head coach Amorim told TNT Sports shortly after the final whistle.
‘With the situations of the game, of course you get a little bit of frustrated with the game because we suffered a goal, one mistake and that can happen.
‘But since the first minute I felt that the players were fine, were trying to play.
‘We managed to score two goals and then the sending off changed the game a little bit.
‘But the fight that the guys showed… and our fans helped us a lot so I think we fully deserved the three points today.’
Though pleased with the result, former United defender Ferdinand argued that Amorim was still yet to deliver what many fans had ‘anticipated’ when he first arrived from Sporting.
‘I think if we’re being brutally honest, there hasn’t been the progress that we all anticipated,’ Ferdinand said on TNT Sports.
‘Where he came from, how successful he had been and the silverware he brought to Sporting, the anticipation of him coming was like, “Wow! What an opportunity we’ve got now with this young manager”, and it hasn’t transferred here.
‘I sat with him the other day and you can see there’s a desire, there’s a work ethic behind the scenes and he’s nipping at everything to try and get this right and turn it around.
‘But things haven’t been smooth for him and he hasn’t managed to get it to where he wants to at this point in time.
‘I think he needs to just get to the end of the season, really regroup and then start building again, building the team and coaching the team because right now they’ve been stuttering along and that’s probably being polite.’
According to Ferdinand, United’s current crop of players ‘don’t have the capacity’ to beat teams physically in the way Amorim wants.
‘I watched Sporting a few times, in Europe especially. They were an athletic, dynamic team. That was one of the staples of that team, the hallmarks of that good team that was winning things,’ Ferdinand added.
‘This team aren’t a mobile, dynamic team.
‘If you look through the heartbeat of this team they have other qualities but being physical, having the ability to overrun teams physically – they don’t have that capacity.’
Asked whether Zirkzee fits into that playing style, Ferdinand replied: ‘No… De Ligt, Maguire, Hojlund, it’s not their game.
‘So I think he needs to find those type of players with the capabilities of carrying out not only tactically what he wants, but the physicality is equally important.’
January signing Dorgu will be suspended for three matches following his sending off for a poor challenge on Omari Hutchinson – and Ferdinand had no complaints with the decision.
‘I don’t think he can have any arguments at all. It was a bad touch and he slides in there on a slippery surface,’ the ex-England centre-back said.
‘I don’t think there was any malice in it, I think he was genuinely going for the ball.
‘But when you’re going in with your studs up, the rules of today suggest that you can’t do that.’
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