Undoubtedly, the most hotly-debated topic in pubs up and down the country over the past few weeks has been the frailties of the new Manchester United regime under David Moyes.
With the possible exceptions of Old Trafford darlings Robin van Persie and Michael Carrick almost every member of the United squad has come under fire for lacklustre performances.
And deservedly so.
Among the most scrutinised players this term is Rio Ferdinand who has spectacularly failed in his attempt to capture any semblance of the fantastic form he showed last season.
Ferdinand’s subpar displays so far this term cannot be better evidenced than they were during the 2-1 home defeat to West Brom.
Morgan Amalfitano opened the scoring by running from his own half, nutmegging and striding past a flailing Ferdinand and then cheekily chipping the ball over goalkeeper David de Gea.
Taking nothing away from a fantastic individual effort on the part of Amalfitano, which is likely to be a contender for goal of the month, Ferdinand simply did not make him work hard enough for the accolade.
As was well documented, United went on to lose the game 2-1, and now sit in 12th place in the Premier League table – their worst start in 24 years.
United’s defensive capabilities this season have to be questioned in the wake of this statistic.
It is unfortunate, but one cannot look at their early season form without pointing out the embarrassment of derby day a fortnight ago where they lost 4-1 to a rampant Manchester City side.
It is a brave fan that criticises the potency of City’s attack but, once again, they were not made to work hard enough for their goals.
While Vincent Kompany and co were receiving widespread acclaim for their handling of Wayne Rooney at one end, Ferdinand and the United backline were at the other being given the run-around by the pace of Jesus Navas and the cocky flair of Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo.
Such were the fallibilities of Ferdinand and friends that City looked like they would score just about every time they went forward
This season certainly does not mark the first time that people have argued over whether or not the world’s most expensive defender has lost it.
Sir Alex Ferguson said less than a year ago that Rio needed to adapt his game after ‘losing that yard of electric pace’, – and adapt he did after an outstanding 2012-13 season which culminated in the retiring Scot labelling the season as the former England centre-half’s ‘best ever’.
While Nemanja Vidic missed large parts of last season through injury, Ferdinand and Northern Irishman Jonny Evans became one of the best defensive pairings in the league.
With the Serb’s return this time around though, Ferdinand has not looked up to snuff and Evans has hardly played a minute.
The Red Devils do have some fantastic back-up options at their disposal in the form of Evans, as well as England pairing Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.
The latter two have both seen more action at right-back the past two years to accommodate Ferdinand, who for so many years has been very difficult to leave out of the team.
But now is the right time for Moyes to take a leaf out of every under-7s manager in the country and ‘let someone else have a go’, starting with this weekend’s trip to Sunderland.
Rio should take a couple of weeks on the Old Trafford naughty step and give Evans, Jones or Smalling a chance to prove that they have what it takes to regularly team-up with club captain Vidic.
It is not too late for Ferdinand to turn his poor spell around but he will know better than anyone that his chances to prove he still has ‘it’ may be wearing thin.
Image courtesy of Casillero del Diablo , with thanks
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