Rio Ferdinand has revealed one of the biggest negative traits Sir Alex Ferguson had to coach out of him at Manchester United.
Ferdinand, 45, is one of the greatest defenders to ever appear for the Red Devils. Nevertheless, even he was not without fault at Old Trafford, as Ferguson once pulled the former England captain up on his tendency to throw his arms out wide when he did not see any passing options.
The defender was famous for his ability to step out of the back line with the ball before finding a player to pass to in between opposition lines. At times, Ferdinand was not able to do so as the opposing team would quickly mark his team-mates out of the game.
While Ferguson, 82, would have blasted other United players for not getting themselves into space, he also had to tell Ferdinand to stop badgering his team-mates with his body language. Considering his memories of Ferguson’s unique style, Ferdinand offered fans an insight into how the Scot managed this trait out of him.
“When I first joined United, I was coming out with the ball and there was no options, not enough people were showing,” Ferdinand said on the Vibe with FIVE podcast. “He pulled me and said, ‘Rio, you need to stop doing that with your arms on the ball’. I said, ‘Why?’ and he said, ‘It creates a nervousness in the stadium’.
“I looked at him and didn’t say nothing, I just went ‘okay’, but in my head I was thinking ‘What are you talking about?’ A couple of weeks later, he got one of the coaches to show me a video and I saw what I was doing.
“I thought, ‘It doesn’t even look good, it doesn’t look right, I shouldn’t do it’. But I needed to see it, to stop and see the impact it has. Those little details as a manager are so important.”
Ferdinand divulged into this story while speaking to Portugal manager Roberto Martinez. The former Wigan Athletic and Everton manager agreed with Ferguson, but also had sympathy with players making the same kind of gestures as Ferdinand.
“There are two aspects there,” Martinez said. “[I would say] ‘One, you need to stop doing that, because, straight away, you are giving the chance to the fans to be unsettled, because they know you are not happy with the lack of options’.
“But the other aspect is ‘Why are you putting your arms there? Well, you haven’t got enough lines of passes, we need to work on that’. When you have someone who is very good at what they do and they get frustrated, there is a reason for it, so in an environment that we are talking about, we need to improve both aspects.
“Okay, reduce the body language, but you shouldn’t have to have that reaction. It’s always managing that in a healthy way if you’re happy to understand it.”
Ferdinand is widely revered as being one of the greatest defenders England has ever produced. He won six Premier League titles, the Champions League, three League Cups and the Club World Cup over the course of 12 years at Old Trafford.
He also managed to earn 81 international caps for England, competing in two World Cups and two European Championships for the Three Lions.
