Rio Ferdinand slams Louis Van Gaal for making Manchester United boring to watch

Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has slammed manager Louis Van Gaal for incorporating a dull and boring brand of football at Old Trafford. Ferdinand was also critical of the Dutch tactician’s summer overhaul of the current squad.

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The 36-year-old footballer-turned-pundit couldn’t believe that with the amount of money spent, the current United team is still missing out on players in several key positions, especially at centre-back.

Ferdinand claims that United will struggle to challenge for titles this season – something which van Gaal himself admitted to recently.

"“If I was a betting man I wouldn’t put money on United winning the Premier League and certainly not the Champions League”, Rio was quoted as saying per the Evening Standard.“Right now, I don’t see a huge improvement from last season. We need time this season to really reevaluate where they are but at the moment I don’t see them being title challengers at all. They are very far behind Manchester City and they were a huge amount of points behind Chelsea last year and they are there or thereabouts with Arsenal.”"

Ferdinand also compared van Gaal’s baffling tactics and philosophy to former boss Sir Alex Ferguson’s methods.

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"“What is different between the philosophy of Manchester United under Van Gaal and Manchester United under Ferguson? “Everything. In terms of players, the personnel are completely different, and they way they play. You associate Man United with pace and power, explosive fantasy in the final third, but that’s not the way it is now.“Man United fans are having to reeducate themselves on what they’re going to see. You’re not going to see what you saw for the last 25 years. It will be a completely different type of football, not football I enjoy watching as much and probably most Man United fans are like that.“It’s methodical and really slow going side to side whereas before it was ‘bang, go’. It’s getting the ball through the team not very quickly, keeping the ball from side to side and waiting for an opening and the time to come for a glaring opportunity to go forward.”"

The former England defender also stressed on the fact that United’s lack of strengthening in the centre-back department could cost them dearly, as he cannot comprehend as to how Daley Blind to cope with Christian Benteke and his aerial ability on Saturday.

"“I don’t think Daley Blind will ever be able to deal with someone like Benteke if he’s on his game and he targets him,’ he said. ‘If I’m Benteke, all week I’m thinking is “wherever the ball is I’m going on Daley Blind”. That’s the only place I would be playing.“I wouldn’t even look at Chris Smalling or think about coming into contact with him. He’s a top striker and they played 30-odd million for him, if he even starts having any types of battles with Smalling I’d call him to the side as the manager and tell him to get on Blind as he is the weak point.“Don’t get me wrong, Blind reads the game really well and he is a natural all-round footballer but Benteke should be able to pick him up and run around with him on his shoulders. That’s the reality of it. When the ball is wide, Benteke should be looking to see where Blind is. It’s a simple as that.“If you’re looking at Manchester United, all their targets and the money they spent it does baffle you to see Blind playing centre-half,’ the 36-year-old continued.“He wasn’t bought as a centre-half, he was bought as a midfielder or a left-back. He played left-back in the World Cup. So it does make you think. The only way that Man United combat that is by having the ball."

This week hasn’t been a particularly pleasing one for van Gaal. Ferdinand’s criticism comes shortly after The Times reported that senior members of the United team confronted van Gaal over his stifling training ground methods. The players feel that they are not allowed enough freedom on the pitch, so as to express themselves even more. This is pretty much justified and was long-expected, given that United’s style of play hasn’t been overwhelming so far this season.

With the match against Liverpool on Saturday to come, van Gaal needs a good result to ease the criticism.

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