Man Utd legend Rio Ferdinand
Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand.
Rio Ferdinand believes Matheus Cunha could make a “big, big, big difference” for Manchester United if he puts in the “graft” as he did in the 3-2 win over Roma on Tuesday.
The Red Devils were 2-0 down at Old Trafford after a first half in keeping with their horror run under Michael Carrick this season.
But they roared back after the break as a Bruno Fernandes penalty and a late brace from Cunha secured a pressure-relieving three points.
But it wasn’t Cunha’s goals or his work on the ball that impressed Ferdinand as much as his “hard work and graft” out of possession.
“I think for Cunha this could be liftoff where he starts to catch fire,” Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel. “I think he’s a hugely talented footballer and he showed glimpses, especially last season.
“Could this be the game that unlocks him? Because I haven’t seen it enough yet with him. You see moments, and you go, ‘Oh, look at that, that’s why we paid the big money for him’, but not enough.
“And I thought yesterday [Tuesday], I thought he was intense off the ball… sometimes to generate a good performance, it isn’t necessarily always going to be a bit of skill, or a goal, or a bit of that Brazilian samba.
“Sometimes it’s a bit of hard work and graft that the fans acknowledge and I thought Cunha yesterday was doing that.
“He was chasing, he was harrying, he ended up getting sent off for doing just that, which was a little bit immature, but the intention that he had all through the game, I thought, set him up to put him in a position to be able to have that chance and finish. And it was good to see.
“He needs to be watching back that performance and go, where were the fans feeding off me there? Where was I getting them going? Where was I getting the team and being the pressure point for the team? It was without the ball a lot of the time. And keep bringing that every game.
“But Cunha has talent and he could be a big, big, big difference for this team if he’s playing consistently well and he’s doing his thing on the pitch.”
Ferdinand was also full of praise for Kobbie Mainoo, who returned to the starting lineup after recovering from injury.
“Whilst he was out injured, they lost five games, so it tells you he’s got an importance within this team,” Ferdinand added.
“I think it’s the control that he brings, that calmness under pressure, taking the ball in all difficult areas, in different phases of the pitch, I think is important.
“But I think keeping Kobbie Mainoo fit, especially now Baleba’s out with a hamstring injury, you need to keep Kobbie Mainoo fit. You need him in this team.
“You need to make him a centrepiece of this team, and the data’s telling you that he has huge importance for this team if we’re going to go and do anything and win any games.”
‘Dalot… oh my god’
The first half left plenty to be desired and talkSPORT’s Jamie O’Hara took aim at Diogo Dalot for his “atrocious” performance in the opening 45 minutes.
“We were watching the Manchester United game and the first-half was pathetic, we were in shock at how bad they were,” O’Hara said on talkSPORT.
“They could have been 4-0 down. But in the second half they turned it around and they were fantastic, they put in a big performance in the end.
“But they were pathetic in the first-half, it was so open and they stopped running, they had given up. They were gone, they were done.
“Roma should have absolutely buried them but they didn’t. They were all over the place at the back. Dalot… oh my god.
“I said during the first-half, they have to take him off, he was atrocious. I don’t know what he was doing, I don’t know. It was awful defending, it was so bad. I couldn’t believe how bad they were.”