Rio Ferdinand has given his honest reactions to Manchester United’s disappointing loss to Everton in the Premier League with Ruben Amorim in agreement with the conclusion
Manchester United were embarrassed by ten-man Everton in a 1-0 loss at Old Trafford, despite Ruben Amorim’s side having the numerical advantage.
The Red Devils dominated possession for the beginning of the game, but Everton looked far sharper on the ball with United being sloppy with passes.
The Toffees were reduced to ten as Idrissa Gana Gueye clashed with his teammate, Michael Keane, striking him in the side of the head and leaving the referee with no choice but to send the 36-year-old to the tunnel.
Even with less players, Everton looked the far better team as they deservedly took the lead through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s magnificent strike from the edge of the box finding the top right corner as Senne Lammens couldn’t get a strong enough hand to it.
United built pressure on David Moyes’ side but a combination of brilliant organisation and superb goalkeeping from England No.1 Jordan Pickford held United off from scoring, even after calling upon Mason Mount, Kobbie Mainoo and Diogo Dalot from the bench.
United Legend, Rio Ferdinand gave an honest assessment on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) giving fans a pure opinion of the game.
Ferdinand and Amorim agree on United’s poor intensity vs Everton
The six-time Premier League winner took to social media to describe the disappointing display from Amorim’s players, criticising their lack of intensity and underwhelming showing at home.
He said: “Painful watch this. No Urgency – very familiar performance we’ve seen a lot over the years at Old Trafford.”
The loss puts an end to a run of five games unbeaten for United. Fans would have thought that they were finally seeing a United team with chemistry and consistency with performances, but the display from the players against a ten-man Everton side, gave fans immediate flashbacks to the poor performances of last season.
Amorim also shared the same opinion as Ferdinand, as he told BBC Sport: “They were the better team with 11 players and 10. I felt we were not there with the same intensity. They deserved the win.
“The other team helped us with the sending off. We needed to do [more] in every moment. If they have 10 let’s push them to the final third. We need to do more.”
Does it feel like a step back? “Yes. Especially in the way we played the game. Forget the result. The result is really bad but I was more concerned by the feeling I had during the game.”
United must bounce back
The loss to Everton was the first in a run of ten games without facing any team in the ‘Big six’, so United have to take advantage of the fixture list.
With no European football to look at, United had the opportunity to potentially move up to 4th in the Premier League, re-claiming a spot in the Champions League, but the display on Monday was arguably the worst display of the season so far.
Read More: MUTV pundit praised ‘absolutely outrageous’ Man Utd star, but Ruben Amorim ignored him vs Everton
United face Crystal Palace away from home next. A team who play in a similar 3-4-3 formation to Amorim, but they have experienced much more success in the system with the attacking threat of Jean-Philippe Mateta, Daniel Munoz and Yeremi Pino, alongside the midfield composure of potential United target, Adam Wharton.
The game is the perfect opportunity for Amorim to make a statement of intent, and prove to the doubters that the system can work as it should.
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