Rio Ferdinand ‘in despair’ after Manchester United defeat against Galatasaray in Champions League: ‘It’s embarrassing’
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Updated 03/10/2023 at 23:13 GMT
Manchester United suffered their sixth defeat of the season when Galatasaray came from behind to beat them 3-2 at Old Trafford in the Champions League. TNT Sports pundit Rio Ferdinand described United’s midfield as being “cut open like a hot knife through butter” as they suffered a second successive defeat in the competition. “This is the Champions League, it’s not school football,” he said.
Manchester United's Anthony Martial (left) and Andre Onana react at the full-time whistle following the UEFA Champions League Group A match between Manchester United and Galatasaray.
Image credit: Getty Images
It’s back-to-back losses both at Old Trafford and in the UEFA Champions League for Manchester United after they succumbed to a defeat against Galatasaray on Tuesday.
New signing Rasmus Hojlund scored twice to give Erik ten Hag’s side a 2-1 lead after former player Wilfried Zaha had cancelled out the Dane’s opener.
After Kerem Akturkoglu struck a 71st-minute equaliser, Casemiro was shown a second yellow card and sent off for a foul on Dries Mertens in the penalty box - and Mauro Icardi consequently missed from 12 yards.
But the striker would make up for his squandered spot-kick with an 81st-minute winner as United’s woes continued with a sixth defeat of the season.
TNT Sports pundit Rio Ferdinand was less than impressed with his former side’s performance at Old Trafford.
“You’ve got to give Galatasaray credit, they kept themselves in the game,” he told Laura Woods and Paul Scholes. “When the chances came their way they punished Man United.
“I’ve been on a rollercoaster of emotions tonight. One minute I’m sitting here I’m going, ‘Well, we look like a team that showed potential and have something to be positive about’ and all of a sudden I’m sitting there with my head in my hands thinking there’s an absolute lack of organisation at times.
“You have experienced players through the middle of this team and there’s no organisation defensively. We score goals and at that moment, you’re told as a kid as well, that’s when you’re at your most vulnerable. That’s where you’ve got to be your most concentrated, and we go to sleep. We’re being cut open like a hot knife through butter at times and it’s embarrassing.
“This is the Champions League, it’s not like we’re playing school football. This is the Champions League and some of the mistakes you’re seeing, a lack of positional and spatial awareness. A lack of smelling danger, at this level you’re going to get punished and they were tonight.
“I was high as a kite at one moment, and then I was sitting there in despair. I’m gutted.”
United thought they had got away with a late Galatasaray goal when Icardi put his penalty wide, but it was all too easy for him to stroll through a lacklustre defence and chip home the winner, completing Galatasaray’s comeback.
The goal led to Ferdinand casting doubt on the United defence and blamed a lack of leadership in central midfield for the costly goal.
“I mentioned straight after the game, defensive organisation and naivety,” he said, reviewing Icardi’s winning goal. “There are players that are just hanging around in the middle of the pitch.
“Icardi was in the middle, alone and all by himself. As a defender you have to anticipate danger; ‘the ball might come back to us’. It’s always ‘what if?’ That’s how you’ve got to play as a defender, you’ve got to be living on the edge, they might get a chance from this position maybe."
On United’s defensive vulnerability in general, he continued: “When you concede goals and when you score goals, it’s the team, I always believe that. But then individuals do have moments in games and I do believe you need organisers at the back, whether it’s the goalkeeper or especially one of your centre-halves.
“In two of those goals, there was no leadership in that back line controlling the situation. I spoke about one of the goals in terms of making you understand where your mindset is in terms of ‘what ifs?’ What if there is a mistake made? What if someone underhits a pass and it goes behind us? You have to think where you are in relation to the striker, he can’t have an easy route to goal.
“It’s not easy, this comes about concentration. And we’re not talking about young players here, we’re talking about experienced players here who know their way around a football pitch. It’s disappointing in that sense.”
Scholes also had his say and was similarly left unimpressed with United's defenders, but insists it wasn't all bad at Old Trafford.
"It’s very difficult to say,” he answered when asked if United lost the game, or Galatasaray won it. “When United lose a big game like this that they really had to win, your first Champions League game, you’re normally really disappointed, but I think I saw enough tonight that excited me.
"But the rest of it, the centre-halves especially. It was so wide open. Victor Lindelof and Raphael Varane were so soft and weak."
United host Copenhagen in their next Champions League game as they look to secure their first win in the competition.
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