Manchester United fans are eager to see significant improvements from the team this season.
The 2025/26 season started with Manchester United losing 1-0 to Arsenal, but many felt Ruben Amorim’s side deserved more from the game.
After finishing 15th in the Premier League and missing out on European football, Amorim will face mounting pressure if he is unable to improve results after adding to his squad in the summer.
If anything, Sunday’s performance should encourage United fans because the outcome would have been different if it weren’t for Altay Bayindir’s howler in the first half.
Next up for United is a trip to Fulham. The Red Devils will be expected to pick up their first win of the season.
Rio Ferdinand working for TNT Sport as a pundit.
Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
Rio Ferdinand demands improvement from Man Utd
Many former players offered their opinions on United last season, with many going in heavy on the club and criticising players for not reaching the required standards at Old Trafford.
Rio Ferdinand is one of them, with his podcast and previous role as TNT Sport pundit, but now he has moved his family to Dubai and won’t be covering as many United matches.
The only way United can bounce back is by winning football matches, especially after losing the first game of the season.
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Speaking to Andy Mitten for The National, Ferdinand gave his prediction for United this season, with the former centre-back suggesting a finish in the top eight would be a good improvement.
“If Man United could finish in the top eight, that’s a good improvement,” Ferdinand said. “That and some consistent football. I’m happy with the recruitment of the players with Premier League experience, which is great, a must. I still would want one or two more.
“You must see now an improvement in results, but you must see a style of football where it looks like these players are playing almost blind. The ball’s going, you can see the patterns of play repeating themselves on a regular basis because that’s when you’re knowing that the training is transferring to the match.
“And I haven’t seen that enough. And only in the best teams and teams that win and are consistent, you’re seeing transferable skills and patterns from training that transfer to games. That’s what our team was.
“People think ours was all off the cuff. There were so many things transferred from the training field that we’d done. Third men running, rotations. These are all things that we were doing with your eyes closed, but this manager hasn’t had the time yet. And that’s why he didn’t want to come at the time that he came because the pre-season is so important. I don’t think fans realise how important a pre-season is.”
Ferdinand explains player criticism as a pundit
It is understood that many current players and their entourage often get upset about what certain pundits say about them in the media.
In the same interview, Ferdinand was asked whether his success as a player – and now in the media – is a problem for those playing today.
“It’s probably a bit of a noose around the neck of the current squad the last few years.
“I always would say that if someone had a problem with me and I sat with them and explained what I was saying, they would realise that I’m not a personally vindictive person. If you’d played bad, if we had a sit-down and a conversation over a cup of tea, and I said what I said on TV, I think you’d shake my hand on the way out. I’m highlighting the mistake that you’ve made and how you can make it better, and I’m not sitting here saying I was perfect, but in my job, in my role, I’ve got to say what I see – but without being personal, and that’s the line.
“I try and be constructive in the way that I talk. And then you get some players, I think it’s not necessarily them, it’s their circle, that send them stuff and then if the context is wrong it warps reality.
“And that’s why I went on social media at the beginning, because it was almost like, ‘this is my chance to say what I mean.’”