Manchester United legendary centre-back Leo Ferdinand has revealed that some Of the Manchester United players have asked through agents to stop criticizing their poor form. But the England Iron Guard stressed that it did not intend to apologize for stating the facts.
Ferdinand has made 455 appearances in United's 12-year career, but he has not been merciful to his old club. After United's 4-1 defeat to Manchester City, Ferdinand shelled the team. He said every United player on the pitch, with the exception of goalkeeper De Gea, had let himself down and would not be happy to play with them. Subsequently, Ferdinand received a call from the Agent of the Manchester United player.
"I really want these players to be able to say the next day: 'I'm embarrassed, my self-esteem and dignity have been hit, I'm very embarrassed, I have to react, please let me come to the training ground and assign tasks for me, let's get us back on track,'" Ferdinand said. I hope the players have that attitude, I hope they do it, but I don't know if that's the case."
There is no doubt that United did not train the day after the match, and the players took leave as usual and only resumed practice on Tuesday. Ferdinand added: "I bet there are a lot of accusations among the players, 'he's not doing it right, he shouldn't be that, he's not in a good position'. I got a lot of calls from my agent, 'Can you please stop talking about this, why are you criticizing him?' Please, if I'm biased and say bad things about these people in private, I'll admit my mistake and I'll say I'm sorry on the phone."
Ferdinand explains: "But I don't apologize for stating the facts, I don't apologize for tactical analysis, for observing how players play and saying situations where I think I can do better. The attitude of the players is: 'I know, I understand, you don't have to tell me, I need to do better.' Instead of complaining that I criticized them in public. You should be your biggest critic and shouldn't think about what I say, it's my job to comment, I'm paid, it's to explain. The player's task is to go to the training ground and work hard, leave me alone, I'm sitting here talking, my playing career is over."
Ferdinand stressed that Manchester United players cannot just enjoy praise and avoid being criticized. "When I praised the players, no one called to say thank you and said I had helped a lot. If you don't, don't call me when I criticize the players, because I'm just analyzing it from a tactical point of view."
For United's performance in the derby, Ferdinand stopped the lack of fighting spirit of the players. "In the first half we could say United were struggling, but the last 20 minutes, as Roy Keane said on Sunday, were very real and the players gave up. In this adversity, you can best discover the true nature of the player, who really has character when the player almost falls to his knees. You can look them in the eye and decide who you can fight alongside. Maybe today we definitely failed, we weren't good enough, or missed an opportunity, but I know the old man will work with us to make sure we redouble our efforts. And now Manchester United, in the last 20 minutes, I don't think of many names, maybe only De Gea. No one is defending their honor, and in the last 20 minutes, no one."
Ferdinand believes that the current Manchester United players are too tolerant of themselves and their teammates: "They all want to be good people, maybe they don't really like each other, but they don't tell each other the truth. If you want to win, you have to tell your teammates, 'You're garbage, you have to improve.' Of course, you don't have to be so aggressive... It can also be a simple conversation that tells them the truth. But I didn't see a response from the Manchester United players, whose body language was terrible, bent over and conceded defeat to the world, with an unhappy look. 」