Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has voiced his displeasure at David Moyes’ style of choosing the squad. The manager typically selects the United squad close to kick off, which, Ferdinand says, can turn him into a “madman” as he waits to discover whether he’s been chosen to start.
According to Ferdinand, Sir Alex Ferguson would name his United squad well before the match, giving the selected players time to prepare mentally for the game. “This manager’s a bit different in that he doesn’t name the team beforehand. You don’t really get to know the team,” Ferdinand told BT Sport. “The old manager used to give you a little bit of an idea if you’d be playing and stuff.”
Ferdinand went on to explain the importance of players knowing whether they’ll be in the starting XI: “When you know you’re playing, the intensity goes up a little bit more on match day. That’s what you need to try to make sure you’re doing, even if you don’t know you’ll be playing – to try to get to that intensity you’d be at when you know you’re playing.”
Moyes, however, did not seem bothered by yet another comparison to his predecessor, saying, “We do it in different ways. Sometimes we name it, sometimes we name it late on. I think sometimes a lot of managers leave it so the press don’t get the teams too early.”
In general, Moyes comes off rather unconcerned by the challenge of succeeding Sir Alex. He stated that he always knew it would be a “bumpy road” and mentioned that he believes the fans understand that, at this point, the club is in a transitional phase. The changover period has left last year’s champions 12 points off leaders Arsenal, but again, Moyes doesn’t seem worried. “It is just because we are a bit inconsistent in our play. We haven’t quite had our rhythm where we have a regularity of what we are going to get.”
Newcastle visit Old Trafford today, hoping to get themselves back into winning ways. But after the midweek loss to Everton, Manchester United will be hoping to overcome that inconsistency and put themselves back into the race for England’s European positions.
