Rio Ferdinand makes brutal admission over Man Utd losing to Newcastle, it’s happened twice this season

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Rio Ferdinand has reacted after Manchester United lost for the first time in 2026, with a disappointing performance against Newcastle, raising big questions.

It was a rare, disappointing night for Manchester United on Wednesday, with a first league defeat since before Christmas.

Newcastle beat United 2-1 on the night, despite being down to 10 men for a chunk of the game, adding to the disappointment around this performance.

Rio Ferdinand made a brutal admission about the performance during the defeat.

After a first defeat, how are you feeling about Michael Carrick for the Man Utd job permanently?

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Rio Ferdinand says Manchester United defeat is deserved

United were terrible against Newcastle, with the loss caused by Tyrell Malacia’s poor defending one which was deserved.

The defeat had been coming over the past four games, with United not playing well enough to win for weeks, but against Newcastle, this caught up with Carrick.

Taking to X at the end of the game, Rio Ferdinand shared his verdict, and it was damning for Carrick.

“Newcastle deserves that…”, Ferdinand admitted when the Magpies scored. “We’ve not been at the races!”

For Newcastle to deserve their win says a lot about how poor Carrick set up United and the performance in general.

It is worth noting that Ferdinand’s comments were true, brutal, yet fair. Not like the harsh toxicity Paul Scholes decided to spread.

What is your MESSAGE to Michael Carrick after his first defeat as Man Utd boss?

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Getting outperformed by a 10-man team is embarrassing for Michael Carrick

Speaking after the game, Carrick spoke to the press and revealed that he didn’t think the problem was character-based for United.

“Why was the character lacking? It wasn’t. It was just the quality and the performance. Not the character. We wanted to win. It’s easy to throw that out when you don’t win a game of football.”

Carrick can say it’s not a mental issue for his United side, but there is clearly an issue because it isn’t a one-off to lose to 10 men.

Earlier this season, United lost 1-0 to 10-man Everton, and now there has been another embarrassing night for the Red Devils.

It shows a lack of killer instinct from United players, less so Carrick, given it happened before his time. But this is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed and not allowed to happen again.