Rio Ferdinand raised his eyebrow at Ruben Amorim’s decision around one Manchester United player during the 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace at Old Trafford.
Jean-Philippe Mateta’s superb second-half brace sealed all three points for Crystal Palace on Sunday and Ruben Amorim suffered another setback with the Red Devils.
Manchester United performed well in the opening stages of the first half, but Ruben Amorim’s men were unable to take the lead before half-time.
Oliver Glasner’s men were more confident as the match progressed and the Eagles took advantage of United’s waning influence in the Premier League contest.
Crystal Palace’s win on the weekend allowed Oliver Glasner’s side to leapfrog United in the Premier League table, with the Eagles now sitting in 12th place.
United dropped down to 13th place and the Red Devils’ underwhelming season in the Premier League continued, with the club only winning eight league matches.
Amorim’s side are 12 points adrift from the Premier League top four and 12 points clear of the relegation zone after 24 league matches played this season.
Ferdinand on Man Utd star and ‘tactics’
Ruben Amorim made the surprising call to play Kobbie Mainoo as a false nine and dropped Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee to the bench for Sunday’s defeat.
Kobbie Mainoo had played as a No 10 in the Europa League last week and the United midfielder impressed by picking up an assist and scoring against FCSB.
Amorim has faced a real headache at Old Trafford over his striking options, with both Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee underperforming in the final third.
Mainoo took up the role of the false nine against Crystal Palace and proved effective in the opening 10 minutes, including hitting the post for the Red Devils.
However, the 19-year-old England international’s influence waned the longer the match went on before Amorim withdrew him for Rasmus Hojlund in the 70th minute.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Rio Ferdinand suggested that Mainoo playing in an advanced role impacts Bruno Fernandes by making him play “even deeper.”
“Kobbie playing up front, another new variation of tactics from the manager,” he said on Rio Ferdinand Presents.
“There’s two strikers – where does that leave Zirkzee and Hojlund? I see that we’re in the market for the young Bayern Munich striker [Mathys Tel] now. He’s a great talent, but do we need another young one?”
“Maybe we do, the manager maybe sees that we’re in the market to get him. But when you play Kobbie so high, Bruno has to play even deeper. Then we lack that real threat. We weren’t really a threat today.”
Why did Amorim play Mainoo as a false nine?
Speaking at his post-match press conference, Amorim revealed why he decided to play Kobbie Mainoo as a false nine for the Palace loss at Old Trafford.
“Today, we choose to play with Kobbie [Mainoo] to use the characteristics of Kobbie,” he said.
“It’s not nothing against Rasmus or Josh. And, sometimes, the team scores goals by creating situations, to use the right characteristics.
“It doesn’t mean if you play with two strikers you are going to score more goals. So, I think it’s a problem for the team and we have spoken about that all the time.
“We need to improve our performance in every aspect of the game, especially scoring goals.”
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