Man Utd: Ferdinand slams Ten Hag for ‘unfair’ treatment of star as Red Devils appear ‘uncoached’

Rio Ferdinand has criticized Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag for continuing to play Casemiro in central defense following their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.

The Brazilian once again partnered Jonny Evans at centre-back as a Leandro Trossard intervention settled the match at Old Trafford and saw the Gunners take the Premier League title race to the final day of the season.

Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof are all injured and experienced midfielder Casemiro has replaced him on four occasions now.

But Men Utd Legend Ferdinand was annoyed that Ten Hag played Casemiro out of position again this weekend and believes the Dutchman should have played Sofyan Amrabat at right-back with Aaron Wan-Bissaka moving to central defense.

After their defeat against Arsenal, Ferdinand said on his Live with the FIVE YouTube channel: “When will he (Erik ten Hag) take Casemiro out of the backline?

“Why can’t Sofyan Amrabat play there? Or Scott McTominay? I just don’t think it’s fair.

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“If you see a few mistakes from someone who plays there, who’s never played there before, and you see the mistakes early, you should say, ‘You know what, I’m not going to do this’ – I don’t care about his experience.

“Come on, get him out of there and back to the position he knows. Play it Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

“Then you could have Amrabat at right back. It’s the most natural thing for me. Wan-Bissaka at centre-back and Amrabat at right-back. He was happy to play him at left back for a few games.

“We looked like an uncoached team. On the creative side of the field, we were lacking greatly. The decision making and quality was not there.

Ten Hag: They have no knowledge of football

But Ten Hag has hit back at criticism of Man Utd for having “zero knowledge of football” despite the Red Devils’ recent record of just one win in eight Premier League matches.

“I think the fans have patience – you saw that on Monday,” Ten Hag said before their defeat to Arsenal.

“But when I see some of the comments, that’s not the case. And either they have no knowledge of football or they have no knowledge of running a football team. It’s possible, or maybe they’re just up to it.

“But I think there are a lot of people who see the problems and are patient.”

Asked on Sunday if the positives of a home defeat showed how far Man Utd had fallen, Ten Hag told reporters: “It shouldn’t be like that, you’re absolutely right, but then I come back to all the problems we have.

“When we analyze performance, we have to see that we were competitive. It’s not how we want of course, United have to win every game, but at the moment as a club we’re not in that position, and certainly not this team with all the injuries we have.