Rio Ferdinand says ‘immaturity’ and ‘boredom’ are to blame for Manchester United’s defensive woes after their 3-3 draw at Galatasaray, as he calls on Erik ten Hag’s side to learn to ‘enjoy being penned back’

• Rio Ferdinand picked out two factors that are costing Man United at the back 
• He wants the side to enjoy soaking up pressure rather than attacking all the time
• Gary Neville in a heated gilet at Goodison! He used to be a tough defender… what’s going on? Listen to It’s All Kicking Off

Rio Ferdinand believes ‘immaturity’ and ‘boredom’ played a key role in Manchester United’s defensive collapse during their 3-3 draw with Galatasaray.

Erik ten Hag’s men twice led by two goals in the Champions League clash in Istanbul, but failed to hold on and their chances of making the knockout stages are now hanging by a thread.

Ferdinand liked what he saw from United from an attacking perspective, but was concerned about the side defensively, and has called for the team to become more comfortable with sitting back and soaking up pressure in games.

‘In the first half I was asking them to be uncomfortable and enjoy sometimes being penned back on the edge of your box, bank of four and a bank of five and not allowing a big gap between the midfield and the defenders. They were doing that,’ Ferdinand said on TNT Sports.

‘But it’s about doing that consistently, doing that rep after rep after rep. And that’s where I think sometimes there’s maybe a little bit of immaturity, maybe boredom creeps in and one jumps out and then they go “Oh, we’re out of shape”, and they look very open at those times. 

Man United conceded three goals on Wednesday and Rio Ferdinand believes the team’s defensive woes are down to ‘immaturity’ and ‘boredom’

United’s hopes of making the Champions League knockout stages are hanging by a thread

Ferdinand wants United to enjoy soaking up pressure and hitting teams on the counter-attack

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‘That’s when you need the voice to say “Get back in with me, keep it the way it is”. Because they’ve got the players on the break, Rasmus Hojlund on the break is phenomenal, the manager said that’s one of the reasons he’s in the team today.

‘Antony had the beating of the full back today and Garnacho could get in at will. When you’ve got those three types of players on the counter-attack, you can afford to sit back and be compact, and they were at times, but not for long enough periods.’

Individual errors proved costly on Wednesday night, with goalkeeper Andre Onana not covering himself in glory for either of Galatasaray’s first two goals.

But Ferdinand is more worried by United’s overall approach to European matches. The Red Devils haven’t struggled in front of goal in the Champions League this season, but that has not got them positive results as they have consistently thrown away leads, and Ferdinand feels this is creating mental scars that are difficult to overcome. 

‘You can’t go into a Champions League campaign and score nine goals in three away games and have one point at the end of it,’ he said.

‘I think that shows you there’s a lack of balance in the team at the moment. Yes, they can get goals and yes, they are attacking at will and creating chances, many of them coming through Bruno, but I think defensively they just made mistakes. 

Ferdinand admitted Andre Onana was at fault for Galatasaray’s first two goals in Istanbul

But he is also concerned by the lack of consistency at the back from Erik ten Hag’s side

I think the keeper today has to hold his hands up and say “Yep, I was at fault for a couple of goals”. He should do better. 

But I think the manager will be scratching his head and thinking the game plan in the first half worked perfectly. And then all of a sudden they score a goal, it changes the whole dynamic of the game. They were 2-0 up, 2-1, and you’re thinking “wow, I set the team up perfectly well, they executed, but then a mistake cost us”. 

‘There’s a lot of question marks in the performance and the way they’re going about things at the moment, but balance is one of the key aspects that they’ve got to really find. We mentioned in commentary, scars from throwing away leads. Those are hard to get away, you’ve got to really manage games. 

‘They’ve got to do that, not over one or two or three games, they’ve got to do that over a period of games now so they can erase those scars that they’ve created and they’ve grown through throwing away leads, especially in Europe.’

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