Ferdinand sends message to Maguire and reacts to brutal 'no-look defending' meme

Rio Ferdinand has urged Manchester United’s players to take responsibility for their own shortcomings before ‘pointing the finger’ at others after Harry Maguire appeared to criticise his team-mates for failing to take their chances against Burnley.

The Red Devils were dumped out of the FA Cup by Middlesbrough before picking up just two points from a possible six in the Premier League in what has been an immensely disappointing start to the month.

Back-to-back 1-1 draws away to Burnley – who sit bottom of the table – and at home to 10th-placed Southampton have ramped up the pressure on interim manager Ralf Rangnick, with the club now languishing outside of the top four.

Maguire has looked a shadow of his former self this season and Rangnick has repeatedly been forced bat away calls for the England international to be stripped of the captaincy throughout his recent struggles.

It’s therefore no surprise that Maguire’s comments in the wake of United’s draw at Turf Moor rubbed many supporters up the wrong way, especially as he was partly at fault for Jay Rodriguez’s 47th-minute equaliser.

‘I think you saw the first half. We had control,’ Maguire told BT Sport shortly after the final whistle.

‘We have got to win the game with the amount of chances we created. We had to get that second goal. Two points dropped.’

Ferdinand was not aware of Maguire’s comments as they were put to him on his
Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE YouTube channel, but suggested the centre-back had made a ‘mistake’ by taking aim at others before addressing United’s problems as a collective.

‘With hindsight we’re all geniuses,’ the legendary ex-United and England defender said.

‘But the mistake maybe he might make with that comment – and I’ve not seen it so I hope I’m right here – is you can point your finger at your strikers, but before that you say, “Listen, we’ve got to do better defensively. I’ve got to do better. All of us collectively, if we do our jobs, we’re a good team. But we’re not.”

‘So I think that’s more that accountability, but I don’t even want to see players coming out on social media or in the interviews and pointing the finger or anything like that. Just get it done, man!’

Ferdinand feels the current United squad are badly lacking the kind of leaders which their rivals Liverpool and Manchester City have in abundance.

‘I don’t see anyone in the United team that’s got that confidence or got that trait in them to grab hold of people,’ he added.

‘The best teams have those players. You look at Liverpool right now… Jordan Henderson, [James] Milner. Even when he’s on the bench, at half-time he’ll be in people’s ears. [Andy] Robertson, Virgil van Dijk. They’re four and I’m sure there are more players that will be doing that.

‘You look at Manchester City… Ruben Dias is animated and gets onto people, [Raheem] Sterling will be talking to people, Kevin De Bruyne will be talking to people.

‘You need men in there to get hold of people and put your ego, put your pride aside.’

‘I smashed him about his hair the other day on BT and I’m just sitting there and I’m waiting for him to come back with: “Yeah, but don’t forget what happened!”‘

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