This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…
BT Sport pundit and former Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand has revealed his main concern amid the Red Devils’ poor run of form.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have recorded just one win from their opening four games, including a loss to Crystal Palace and two 1-1 draws against Wolves and Southampton.
They currently find themselves sat in seventh place as a result, and Ferdinand has highlighted what he thinks the biggest problem is with United amid their terrible run.
What did he say?
Speaking to BT Sport, via The Express, Ferdinand said: “I think the main part is they haven’t been ruthless or clinical enough in front of goal when they have had games and positions to win.
“They had teams waiting there to be beaten and they didn’t have the ruthlessness, maybe the experience, the nous, to get over the line.”
Should have a lot more points
There is clearly a visible improvement in United’s way of playing this season – you only need to watch their games to see that.
However, whilst Solskjaer has got his side playing some good stuff at times, they do lack the professional trait of knowing when to stop being free-flowing and adventurous and see a game out.
Against Wolves, Paul Pogba missed a penalty that presumably would’ve killed that game off and handed United the three points, whilst against the Eagles, it was Marcus Rashford who missed his kick whilst a whole number of other chances went begging.
If you’re not able to outscore your opponents and be ruthless in front of goal, you have to know how to suffocate the game and ensure that the opposition don’t get a sniff, something which United seemingly can’t do.
In that case, they will need to score more goals than they are doing in order to have any chance of picking up the three points on a regular basis, so Ferdinand’s main concern is an accurate one.
