Rio Ferdinand has picked out the one game he’s confident Manchester United will win amid fears the Premier League giants could get relegated.
A deflating 1-0 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday saw United drop to fifteenth within the English top-flight, 12 points above the dreaded relegation zone.
United were expected to enhance under Ruben Amorim, who led Sporting Lisbon to 2 league titles before taking up at Old Trafford, but appear to have gotten even worse since Erik ten Hag’s sacking.
Ferdinand, who lifted six Premier League titles and the Champions League at United, admits he’s starting to fear his former club are in a relegation battle.
On a video on his YouTube channel, Ferdinand went through Manchester United’s upcoming fixtures and admitted he was only really confident of getting a end in one game.
‘Manchester United are absolutely struggling in the mean time,’ the ex-England defender said. ‘Only Wolves and West Ham separate my club from the relegation places. Do you realise we’re that close?
‘Someone said we’d like 11 points simply to stay awake and I’m beginning to think like that. I’ve got the fixture list here and I’m the sport and I’m being serious here. Undergo it.
Man Utd fixtures
Everton (a)
Ipswich Town (h)
Fulham (h – FA Cup)
Arsenal (h)
Leicester City (a)
Nottingham Forest (h)
Manchester City (h)
Newcastle United (a)
Wolves (h)
Bournemouth (a)
Brentford (a)
‘Everton away, Ipswich at home, Arsenal, Forest away, Man City, Newcastle away, Wolves, Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Leicester.
‘The one place I potentially see us getting anything – and I’m not even saying a win – is Leicester. We’ve slapped up Leicester a few times already this season so we’ve got their number.
‘Normally you take a look at the fixture list and you may see where the points are coming from.
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‘We just checked out the fixture list and I’m not seeing outright wins, I’m not it considering there’s three points here and there’s three points there. That’s the issue.’
Amorim said his job at Manchester United was ‘so hard’ after they lost for the eighth time in 12 league games over the weekend.
United took a depleted squad to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but fans were nevertheless underwhelmed by the visitors’ performance as James Maddison’s first-half goal gave Spurs a morale-boosting win.
‘I even have loads of problems,’ Amorim told Sky Sports. ‘My job is so hard but I’m here to proceed my job to the following week with my beliefs and I’ll attempt to win again.’
One other Manchester United legend, Gary Neville, was also critical of the display in north London and described his former club as ‘average’.
‘The club could have to be patient but I would love to see the performance levels getting higher,’ he said.
‘This can be a very average level that United are acting at week in, week out. The very best thing about it has been Amorim’s press conferences. This can be a really poor United team.’
Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp added on United’s struggles: ‘They’re so wanting top players, it will need loads of time and patience.
‘The issue is that when you’re a club of the enormity of Manchester United you don’t wish to hear that. It’s very difficult to look at when you are a Manchester United fan.’
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