{"id":61411,"date":"2025-08-06T00:36:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T00:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/61411\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T00:36:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T00:36:44","slug":"rio-ferdinand-singles-out-four-man-utd-stars-where-ruben-amorims-team-can-be-exposed-two-have-no-athleticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/61411\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Ferdinand singles out four Man Utd stars where Ruben Amorim’s team can be ‘exposed,’ two have ‘no athleticism’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rio Ferdinand has dropped his biggest concern for Ruben Amorim and the complexion of the Manchester United manager\u2019s squad at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

The new Premier League season is around the corner for Manchester United<\/a> and the Red Devils are in the final stages of their pre-season tour under Ruben Amorim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amorim\u2019s men were in action in the United States on the weekend and United and Everton played out a 2-2 draw<\/a> at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

United\u2019s result against Everton<\/a> was the Red Devils\u2019 final match of the pre-season campaign in the United States ahead of their return to Old Trafford<\/a> this summer.<\/p>\n

Amorim\u2019s side came out on top in their Premier League Summer Series competition after United picked up two victories and a draw during their tour of the US.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Man Utd\u2019s \u2018top player\u2019 can climb out of \u2018shadows\u2019 and have transformative impact, Rio Ferdinand sees elite \u2018quality\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\"FormerPhoto by James Gill \u2013 Danehouse\/Getty ImagesRio Ferdinand identifies Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire amid his worry for Man Utd manager Ruben Amorim<\/p>\n

Manchester United\u2019s final match of the pre-season campaign will be played on Saturday afternoon, with the Red Devils in action against Serie A outfit Fiorentina.<\/p>\n

The Red Devils\u2019 2025-26 Premier League campaign under United manager<\/a> Ruben Amorim will begin with a tough test against rivals Arsenal at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

Speaking on talkSPORT<\/a>, Rio Ferdinand<\/a> admitted that Amorim was hit with a major obstacle in United\u2019s lacklustre 2024-25 campaign due to the shape of his team.<\/p>\n

The United legend<\/a> said that Matthijs de Ligt<\/a> and Harry Maguire<\/a> have \u201cno athleticism\u201d between them, while Leny Yoro<\/a> and Ayden Heaven<\/a> are still inexperienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team shape wasn\u2019t working last year, and then that leaves players individually open to get exposed, for instance, transitions,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan United were getting hit on transitions all the time last season. They haven\u2019t actually got the profile of [a] player to deal with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no athleticism, centre of midfield, there\u2019s no athleticism in the centre [of defence], [Matthijs] De Ligt and Harry Maguire.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Leny] Yoro, yes, is athletic, but again, 19, adjusting, [Ayden] Heaven, adjusting, young kid as well inexperienced, so, you need to have the team functioning to help those individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Man Utd\u2019s \u2018very confident kid\u2019 is tipped to flourish under Ruben Amorim, Rio Ferdinand names two standout features<\/a><\/p>\n

Rio Ferdinand explains the \u2018most important thing\u2019 that Ruben Amorim must nail with Man Utd next season<\/p>\n

Ferdinand made his feelings clear that the Red Devils looked better in pre-season, but it is \u201cvitally important\u201d that United players must finally \u2018click\u2019 together as a team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you can pick holes in individuals, but I think the most important thing is how the team function[s],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 46-year-old former United and England defender added: \u201cThe team weren\u2019t fit enough to play an Amorim style of football last year, I think they\u2019re hitting that in pre-season to get them fitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see signs of that already, but they\u2019ve got to understand what he wants as individuals, but as a collective, it\u2019s vitally important.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever you can do individually, yes, we can pick at that, but the squad wasn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n

United and Fiorentina\u2019s pre-season friendly clash at Old Trafford on Saturday is slated for a UK kick-off time of 12:45pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rio Ferdinand has dropped his biggest concern for Ruben Amorim and the complexion of the Manchester United manager\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[25717,45706,29451,34462,21907,7794,403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-61411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ayden-heaven","9":"tag-harry-maguire","10":"tag-leny-yoro","11":"tag-matthijs-de-ligt","12":"tag-rio-ferdinand","13":"tag-ruben-amorim","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}