Ferdinand names the only team he expects Man Utd to beat

Expectations were high for improvement under Ruben Amorim, who had led Sporting Lisbon to two league titles before taking the reins at Old Trafford. However, the team seems to have regressed since Erik ten Hag’s departure.

Ferdinand, a six-time Premier League winner and Champions League victor with United, admits he now fears his former club is embroiled in a relegation battle.

In a video on his YouTube channel, Ferdinand reviewed Manchester United’s upcoming fixtures and confessed he felt confident about getting a positive result in only one game.

‘Manchester United are absolutely struggling at the moment,’ the ex-England defender said. ‘Only Wolves and West Ham separate my club from the relegation places. Do you realise we’re that close?

‘Someone said we need 11 points just to stay up and I’m starting to think like that. I’ve got the fixture list here and I’m looking at the game and I’m being serious here. Go through it.

Man Utd fixtures

Everton (a)
Ipswich Town (h)
Fulham (h – FA Cup)
Arsenal (h)
Leicester City (a)
Nottingham Forest (h)
Manchester City (h)
Newcastle United (a)
Wolves (h)
Bournemouth (a)
Brentford (a)

‘Everton away, Ipswich at home, Arsenal, Forest away, Man City, Newcastle away, Wolves, Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Leicester.

‘The only place I potentially see us getting anything – and I’m not even saying a win – is Leicester. We’ve slapped up Leicester a couple of times already this season so we’ve got their number.

‘Normally you look at the fixture list and you can see where the points are coming from.

‘We just looked at the fixture list and I’m not seeing outright wins, I’m not looking at it thinking there’s three points here and there’s three points there. That’s the problem.’

Amorim described his role at Manchester United as “extremely challenging” following their eighth loss in 12 league matches over the weekend.

Despite fielding a weakened squad at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, fans were still disappointed with the team’s performance, as James Maddison’s first-half goal secured a morale-boosting victory for Spurs.

‘I have a lot of problems,’ Amorim told Sky Sports. ‘My job is so hard but I am here to continue my job to the next week with my beliefs and I will try to win again.’

Another United legend, Gary Neville, was also critical of the display in north London and described his former team as ‘average’.

‘The club will have to be patient but I would like to see the performance levels getting higher,’ he said.

‘This is a very average level that United are performing at week in, week out. The best thing about it has been Amorim’s press conferences. This is a really poor United team.’

Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp added on United’s struggles: ‘They are so short of top players, it is going to need a lot of time and patience.

‘The problem is that when you are a club of the enormity of Manchester United you don’t want to hear that. It’s very difficult to watch if you are a Manchester United fan.’