Rio Ferdinand has described David Moyes’s tactical approach during his time at Old Trafford as ‘embarrassing’ and stated that the club’s former manager created a ‘negative vibe’ in contrast to the Ferguson era.
The defender, who left United for QPR in the summer after twelve years with the club, was part of the team that finished seventh in the 2013-2014 campaign, Manchester United’s lowest ever finish on the Premier League.
“He tried to impose a vision but never seemed to be completely clear what that vision should be,” Ferdinand said in an extract from his autobiography #2Sides, which is being serialised in The Sun. “Unintentionally, he created a negative vibe where, with Fergie, it had always been positive. It was always how to stop the other side. Moyes set us up not to lose. We’d been accustomed to playing to win.’
“Moyes’s innovations mostly led to negativity and confusion. The biggest confusion was over how he wanted us to move the ball forward. Often he told us to play it long. Some players felt they kicked the ball long more than at any time in their career.
“Sometimes our main tactic was the long, high, diagonal cross. It was embarrassing. In one home game against Fulham we had 81 crosses! I was thinking, why are we doing this? Andy Carroll doesn’t play for us!
“The whole approach was alien. Other times Moyes wanted lots of passing. He’d say: ‘Today I want us to have 600 passes in the game. Last week it was only 400’. Who cares? I’d rather score five goals from 10 passes.”
Ferdinand also revealed that Moyes had made the players train on a public park prior to their crucial Champion’s League tie against Bayern Munich, a move he described as “amateurish” – and that Moyes announced he would be dropping him in front of the entire squad.
“It killed me,” he said. “Inside I wanted to scream and grab him. I’m a team player, so I just had to bite my tongue and stand there. But it was probably the worst single moment I ever had at United. I’d never been dropped for a big game like that – and to drop that on me in front of everybody.”
