Rio Ferdinand has admitted that he ‘feels’ for one Manchester United star after a “difficult” moment in the 2-0 defeat against Newcastle at Old Trafford.
Manchester United signed off 2024 with their final Premier League match on Monday, with the Red Devils suffering their third consecutive league loss.
Alexander Isak fired Newcastle into the lead in only the fourth minute before Joelinton doubled the Magpies’ advantage in the 19th minute at Old Trafford.
United were left chasing the Premier League match on Monday evening and Ruben Amorim’s men were unable to rally back against a superb showing from Newcastle.
The Red Devils languish in 14th place in the Premier League table and United are only seven points clear of the relegation zone after 19league matches played.
Ruben Amorim faces an uphill task as United manager and he has now watched the Red Devils slip to four consecutive defeats across all competitions.
Ferdinand reacts to Man Utd star’s low point
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim made one major decision during the first half of the 2-0 defeat to Newcastle at Old Trafford.
The 39-year-old Portuguese hooked off Joshua Zirkzee in the 33rd minute and replaced the United summer signing with Kobbie Mainoo.
Joshua Zirkzee had been deployed as one of the two No 10s and United had seen their midfield swamped by Newcastle during the first half.
Christian Eriksen was moved into the attacking role after Zirkzee was pulled and Kobbie Mainoo took up a central role alongside Casemiro in the heart of midfield.
Zirkzee, who has struggled to impress since his summer move, was met with boos when he was subbed off before the Dutch forward went straight down the tunnel.
The 23-year-old United striker would later re-emerge from the Old Trafford tunnel and he then took his place on the bench for the match.
Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents, Rio Ferdinand insisted that he can only “hope” that Zirkzee “can recover” after his ice-cold reception in Monday’s 2-0 defeat.
“I feel for him. I’m really, really gutted for him as a former professional footballer,” he said.
“To be dragged off after 30 minutes is hard to take and then the reaction in the stadium as well, there was some boos and stuff like that. It’s difficult, man.
“My heart goes out to him and I hope he can recover and I hope he gets rebuilt from within, from the players and the manager.
“The manager said, ‘I’m going to go and speak to him because it was a tactical decision,’ but what I would say is that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this happen.
“We’ve seen better players come back from this, we’ve seen some bigger and better players dragged off at these times in a game and it’s about having the resilience to come back as well.”
Amorim on Zirkzee reception from fans
Joshua Zirkzee arrived at Old Trafford from Serie A side Bologna last July in a deal worth £36.54m.
The Netherlands international has only managed to score four times in 27 appearances across all competitions for United in the 2024-25 campaign.
Speaking after the Newcastle match, Amorim reacted to Zirkzee’s reception at Old Trafford and admitted that the United star experienced a “very difficult moment.”
“He wants to be [there] and then he returns in the second half,” he said.
“It was a very difficult moment and he’s a human being, but then he felt the support of the fans in the end, so everything is okay.”
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