“It doesn’t help” – Rio Ferdinand disagrees with Roy Keane on ‘big’ Man United change

Former Manchester United duo Rio Ferdinand and Roy Keane have disagreed on whether Erik ten Hag should strip Bruno Fernandes of captaincy at Old Trafford.

Fernandes, 29, was offered the armband on a permanent basis at the start of this season after wearing it for the majority of last term.

Harry Maguire was rarely in the team and had the captaincy taken away from him, with Bruno being the recipient.

Since then, United have suffered a terrible second season under Ten Hag so far, sitting eighth in the Premier League table and once again being dismantled by their rivals Manchester City in their latest meeting.

Following that 3-0 loss, Keane made the point on Sky Sports that he would ‘100 per cent’ take the captaincy away from Fernandes, who is the ‘opposite’ of what the former United midfielder wants in a captain.

The Northern Irish pundit added that the performance against City was not dissimilar to his display at Anfield last season when United embarrassingly lost 7-0 to Liverpool.

However, Keane’s former teammate and another player who once wore the armband at Old Trafford, Rio Ferdinand, has disagreed with the idea to strip the Portuguese midfielder of the captaincy.

With problems arising in all areas of the club this term, Ferdinand believes it would be the wrong call for Ten Hag to make such a move, particularly because there is not an obvious replacement.

“Who else is there? If there was somebody jumping off the page that you go, ‘Okay, he should actually get it’, I’d say you can consider that,” Ferdinand told Vibe With Five.

“One of Erik ten Hag’s biggest problems has been the amount of sagas there’s been outside of the pitch.

“We’ve had the Greenwood situation, you’ve had Sancho, you’ve had Antony. Now you want to create another one by taking the captaincy. Look at how that affected the team when Maguire went out of the team and he took the armband off him.

“These are big decisions. The armband at a football club is a massive decision that makes news for all the wrong reasons, and you want to bring another saga to the table?

“I don’t think it’s the right call at all. The lens on the club at the moment is so magnified – laser-focused on the football club for all the wrong reasons. Why bring another saga to the table, I don’t think it helps the situation right now.”