Rio Ferdinand has admitted that Ralf Ragnick's comments on Manchester United are proving true. He said that the Red Devils' situation is an absolute disgrace and that they need major changes.
After the 2-0 loss to Newcastle United on Monday (December 30), Ferdinand said that United were unable to contain their opponents and negate their tactics. He added that the players had no clue how to press:
“You look at Man United yesterday, wow. It was an absolute disgrace, in terms of the ability of the opposition team Newcastle to play the ball in straight lines or in one or two, three passes, right through our team and to be right up against our back three or five. It shows you there is no understanding or an idea in this team of how to press.
“It just flips me back to Rangnick. Ralf Rangnick said this needed open-heart surgery, not a quick fix, open-heart surgery it needs. He weren’t wrong, how true are those words ringing now? He was so right, and I think Amorim is sitting there behind closed doors and be saying the same thing, and he said ‘our club needs a shock’. He didn’t go as far as saying open-heart surgery, but he went ‘our club needs a shock’.”
Manchester United are struggling with one win in five Premier League matches, leaving them 14th in the league table. They replaced Erik ten Hag earlier this season with Ruben Amorim, but the results haven't improved.
What did Ralf Rangnick say about Manchester United?
Ralf Rangnick said about Manchester United in his final press conference that the club needed massive changes. He said that the Red Devils needed a massive overhaul, elaborating:
"You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are. Now it’s about how do we solve them? It’s not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart.
"If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense, and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year.”
Manchester United appointed Erik ten Hag as the permanent manager in May 2022 after Rangnik's stint as the interim manager.