Rio Ferdinand slammed Manchester United’s “kamikaze football” after Erik ten Hag’s side exited European competition.
A 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at Old Trafford condemned Manchester United to a bottom-placed finish in Champions League Group A, ending their continental campaign.
FC Copenhagen’s win against Galatasaray meant that Ten Hag’s team would not have progressed to the knockout rounds of the top tier competition even with victory over group winners Bayern, but a Europa League place could have been theirs with victory.
But a flat performance saw the hosts seldom threaten the German club and create few chances, with Kingsley Coman’s goal 20 minutes from time enough to secure the win.
Ferdinand, though, took aim at his old club’s performances earlier in the group stage, when Manchester United squandered a series of leads on their way to their lowest ever Champions League group stage return.
“It is very disappointing,” Ferdinand said on TNT Sports. “When the group came out, you would have expected Manchester United to go through.
“To score three goals in each of their away games and come away with the points they did is criminal, really. 12 goals, 15 conceded - there’s the problem right there. It’s kamikaze football almost, like basketball - you attack, we attack. You can’t do that at this level, you get punished.
“You get what you deserve. If you aren’t clinical, if you can’t close matches out, you don’t deserve to progress to the knockout stages.”
The 15 goals conceded by Manchester United across their six group games were the most ever by an English side in the competition.
Any hopes of a stirring response after Saturday’s thrashing by Bournemouth on their own turf were misplaced, with Ten Hag unable to inspire a reaction from his side.
And with both Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford absent from the matchday squad, the Dutch manager had precious few options on the bench with which he could try to spark his side into life.
“It’s been a really poor campaign,” reflected former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes on TNT. “I think it started with the Galatasaray game in the group stages. As soon as you lose a home game in the group stages, you are really up against it.
“In some games, they looked really good. They were getting two-goal leads and just couldn’t see them out. Tonight was probably the most disciplined performance of all of them, but you never really felt like Manchester United were going to score goals. The discipline was a lot better, but they couldn’t find a cutting edge. I think Bayern had another three or four gears they could have gone to if they really wanted to.”
Manchester United next face Premier League leaders Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.
