Rio Ferdinand slams Erik ten Hag’s ‘kamikaze chaos football’ at Man United and names two star players whose ‘worst traits’ are on display during the Dutchman’s reign
Rio Ferdinand has criticized Erik ten Hag’s “kamikaze” style of play at Manchester United for bringing out the “worst” players during a difficult season.
Ten Hag saw his side lose their lead for the third game in a row as Liverpool scored a penalty in late stoppage time to salvage a point at Old Trafford and keep the Premier League title race alive.
Goals from Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo canceled out Luis Diaz’s opening goal before Mohamed Salah scored from a spot-kick after Aaron Wan-Bissaka was fouled in the box.
Despite the impressive result against Jurgen Klopp’s title contenders, Ten Hag’s tactics have again been highlighted by critical former players, with Roy Keane fuming that they “play like a small club” and Gary Neville calling the Dutchman’s training of “strange”.
The 54-year-old is in his second season at the 13-time Premier League champion club and has faced several questions over his side’s style of play, which appears to change from game to game.
Rio Ferdinand slammed Erik ten Hag’s ‘kamikaze’ style of play at Manchester United for bringing out the ‘worst’ players
United have surrendered their lead in their last three Premier League meetings under Ten Hag
The Man United manager has dismissed criticism of his tactics against Liverpool after the match.
Chaos was the dominant theme of United’s 3-2 midweek defeat at Chelsea and again against arch-rivals Liverpool on Sunday and Ferdinand believes Ten Hag’s tactics reflect poorly on the players.
Speaking on his YouTube show Vibe with Five, the frustrated former United defender said: “The manager came out before and said ‘if someone can’t see the style of play then I don’t know what you look”. and basically “we have a style of play”.
“For the life of me, I give it the benefit of the doubt every time and I look at it and think ‘what the hell’ every time?
“I said yesterday (Sunday) after the game that if we were looking for kamikaze, open sesame, no control of the football, he understood it well and did a great job because that’s what we play. .
“You can attribute that to injuries, we have a lot of injuries, but a lot of teams have injuries and they still play the style of football they are trying to achieve. I don’t think Ten Hag’s style is that kamikaze chaos football,” he added.
Ferdinand highlighted the performances of Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, who won the Champions League five times with Real Madrid before joining United two years ago.
The 32-year-old was sensational in his first year playing an influential role in United’s Carabao Cup triumph and qualification for the FA Cup final as well as a third-place finish in the Premier League, but he has suffered from injuries and form this season.
Liverpool dug into United’s defensive midfield of Casemiro and Mainoo, and Ferdinand continued to explain how Ten Hag’s “open” brand of football makes the duo “sometimes worse”.
Former United defender Ferdinand has criticized United’s performances under Ten Hag this season.
Ferdinand believes United midfielder Casemiro is made worse by Ten Hag’s tactics
Ferdinand also believes United’s style of play is failing to get the best out of youngster Kobbie Mainoo.
“This type of football sometimes leads to seeing players at their worst, for example Casemiro, for everything he has won and the great player he has been, he will look like a worse player when the tactic will be as it is.
“Open transition football with big spaces around him, in this midfield another midfielder is sometimes 20 meters away.
“It never happened at Real Madrid, so you don’t see his worst traits, namely his mobility, the same with Kobbie Mainoo, so you do things with a structure so you don’t see that.
United endured a difficult Premier League campaign in Ten Hag’s second season at the club.
“We do things where you’ll see their exact worst trait, so it makes them look worse sometimes.” You look at Hojlund, how many balls have we put in the box for him, balls that he can run on, it doesn’t seem to play to his strengths.
“Then you have a 19-year-old central defender (Kwambala), no protection in front of him.
“The number of times Liverpool passed the ball from the back straight to an attacking midfielder, that’s why I say his performance was magnificent because he had to deal with things that a structured team would not have to manage like many.
“There are a lot of things going on in the team where we are not seeing the best from our players and that is due to the way the team is organized,” he added.
