Rio Ferdinand waxed lyrical about a Manchester United star who is “delivering” after Ruben Amorim’s men inflicted a 2-1 defeat on Manchester City on Sunday.
Manchester United came from behind to beat Viktoria Plzen 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday before repeating the same feat at the Etihad on the weekend.
Pep Guardiola’s side went into the break with a 1-0 advantage over United after Josko Gvardiol turned in a header past Andre Onana in the 36th minute.
However, Ruben Amorim’s men would stun City late in the second half and captured all three Premier League points with a sublime comeback performance.
Bruno Fernandes cancelled out Josko Gvardiol’s opener from the spot-kick in the 88th minute before Amad Diallo netted United’s winner only two minutes later.
United are 13th in the Premier League table after their 2-1 comeback win over City and Amorim’s side are only six points adrift from the top four.
Ferdinand reacts to Man Utd star vs Man City
Rio Ferdinand took to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and waxed lyrical about Amad Diallo’s performance at the Etihad.
Amad has been one of the standout performers for Manchester United in the 2024-25 campaign and the United winger has excelled under Ruben Amorim.
The 22-year-old Ivorian attacker has shown his versatility for Amorim by playing as a wing-back at times in the United manager’s formation.
Amad was deployed in an advanced position out on the right in support of Rasmus Hojlund and the United star delivered against City in the 2-1 win.
The Ivory Coast international won United their penalty in the second half before netting the Red Devils’ second amid his show-stealing performance.
Posting on X, United legend Ferdinand wrote: “Written off by many inside and out the club. Too lightweight. No power. Can’t run. Too young. Big price. And more.
“But [Amad Diallo] is delivering, the desire plus quality is thriving.”
Amorim talks Man Utd star Amad
Speaking after the Manchester derby, Amorim insisted that Amad must “continue to work hard” and he is “careful” to manage the expectations around the player.
“I don’t want to talk about just Amad,” he said, as per Manchester United’s official website.
“A lot of players here are improving, are fighting, are working really hard, are suffering. That is a good thing when you suffer for something.
“Amad, of course, is in a great moment but I will say it again, Erik [ten Hag] brought Amad to the first team, Ruud [van Nistelrooy] did a great job and we continue with the good moment of Amad.
“Amad did a great job, but now let’s be careful with Amad, don’t do the same mistakes that we did in the past with younger guys and let’s push him down a little bit, praise him, but the next game is a new story. He must continue to work hard.”
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