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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Alex Young

Manchester United: Rio Ferdinand explains why Ruben Amorim 'scares' Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola will be "scared" by the arrival of Ruben Amorim at Manchester United, having seen the departing Sporting Lisbon manager thrash his team on Tuesday night, says Rio Ferdinand.

Striker Viktor Gyokeres, who has been tipped to follow Amorim to Old Trafford, scored a hat-trick as Sporting ran out 4-1 winners in Amorim's penultimate game in charge, consigning City to a third defeat in seven days.

Bernardo Silva said afterwards that City as "in a dark place", a claim his manager has refuted defiantly, and Ferdinand believes Guardiola will be wary of the impact Amorim will have at the cross-city rivals.

"I was excited by the change in dynamics of his team in the second half, how aggressive and dynamic there were, they showed fight and resilience," Ferdinand said on TNT Sports.

"They are important elements you want him to bring, we are lacking that at Man Utd so I am really excited.

"I'd like to be in the WhatsApp group of the current [Man Utd] team, if they didn’t watch that they are lunatics. The conversations between those guys now, wow.

"I am sitting there as a player asking why he isn’t coming in tomorrow. I want him now. I don’t want to get carried away but I want some good times back. It’s been far too negative and depressing in recent years.

"You want a bit of sunshine and hopefully that man can bring that. But it’s going to take some time it is not an overnight job, but Pep will be scared."

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