Rio Ferdinand said Manchester United “might as well” appoint Sam Allardyce as manager following their horror show at Brentford.
A dismal year reached yet another low on Saturday as United were humiliated by Thomas Frank’s side in London. A disastrous performance saw the Reds fall 4-0 behind within just 35 minutes, with the visitors proving to be the architects of their own downfall.
Having been guilty of a howler for the opening goal, David de Gea then found his distribution under close scrutiny from a rampant Brentford. The United goalkeeper and his defenders had got away with a close shave from a botched goal-kick moments before they were made to pay dearly.
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De Gea passed the ball out to Christian Eriksen, despite the midfielder having Mathias Jensen breathing down his neck. The Brentford midfielder immediately nicked the ball away before sliding the ball home, putting the hosts in complete control.
From there on in, United lost all confidence in their ability to play out from the back, with De Gea reverting to a more direct approach from goal-kicks. The home support took great delight in seeing their opponents seemingly depart from Erik ten Hag’s game plan.
And the move didn’t go unnoticed by Ferdinand, who admitted to receiving plenty of stick during United’s humbling. “My phone was popping off, the WhatsApp groups, online, everything,” Ferdinand told his FIVE YouTube channel.
“We are just the butt of all jokes now. We have become an absolute laughing stock. You watch the game and you look at it and you think, ‘wow.’
“The players are nowhere near worth the money that they spent on them. They’re nowhere near worth what they’re probably paying them.
“There’s zero confidence in the building. You see after the first goal where [David] De Gea plays out, the next time he saw numbers on the backs of shirts - they ran up the pitch and just wanted it kicked long.
“Like, we might as well bring in some other managers like Big Sam or [Tony] Pulis if we’re going to be like that. You look at it and you say, ‘this is not the Manchester United that I once knew.’
“Even if it’s a little bit of a fall from grace, [to fall] this far? It’s beyond digging out individual players even. And we’ve got Liverpool coming up next.”
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