Rio Ferdinand hits out at Carragher for ‘highly disrespectful’ slam of Man Utd star

Rio Ferdinand has branded Jamie Carragher’s criticism of Manchester United star Casemiro “highly disrespectful”.

Casemiro had enjoyed a decent start to the season in United’s opening two games and could even have been considered, as Ferdinand says, the Red Devils’ “best player” across those two fixtures.

But the Brazilian was deemed to be at fault for the first two goals Manchester United conceded in their 3-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday before being hooked at half-time by Erik ten Hag.

Casemiro was also criticised for big chunks of last season, including after a defeat to Crystal Palace in May, leading Carragher to urge the 32-year-old to ‘leave the football before the football leaves you’ .

That line did the rounds on social media after Sunday’s defeat and Ferdinand took great issue with Carragher’s opinion, presumably unaware that it was four months old.

Speaking on his podcast, Ferdinand said: “I heard Jamie say ‘leave the football before the football leaves you’ – I just think that’s highly disrespectful.

“I think it’s really disrespectful, especially given what my man’s won – they don’t have a trophy cabinet big enough for what he’s won.

“There’s more to it than the fact he’s made a couple of mistakes.

“I think if you look at the two games before this season, he’s arguably been Man United’s best player.

“It’s easier to say that he’s gone, he’s finished. He’s almost 32, but when I look at him, I just feel that he’s being asked to do a lot of things like play 30-yard balls and dictate the pace of the game etc.

“These are things that Man United would never have recruited him for because he’d never been asked to do this at Real Madrid.

“He was clearing up, like security in front – slide-tackling, covering all the gaps and then giving it to other people to play football.

“But now he’s being asked to do things that he’s never done before, so he’s going to make mistakes because it’s not his natural game.”

Gary Neville said he felt for Casemiro after he was replaced by academy graduate Toby Collyer at half-time.

He said: “That feels a big moment [Casemiro’s replacement].

“I don’t know how that conversation has gone at half time when Ten Hag has hooked Casemiro in front of all his teammates.

“I don’t think he would have brought him off for the two mistakes.

“I think it was what happened after that and the reaction of the crowd, I feel for him.”

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After the game, Carragher likened Ten Hag to former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers as he suspects the Man Utd head coach will soon be sent packing.

“I don’t think anything is going to change in terms of the football [at Man Utd],” Carragher said .

“I have seen this before at Liverpool. Go back before Klopp came in when there was talk of Brendan Rodgers losing his job after one season. They weren’t sure what to do, FSG [Liverpool’s ownership], and they kept him and Rodgers changed his staff.

“You expect something different, but the manager is the main man. Rodgers was gone in October. Ten Hag said in his interview ‘we will see where we are at the end of the season’.

“I would be surprised if he is still there at the end of the season.”

Neville meanwhile suspects Man Utd will “at least” give Ten Hag “until Christmas” to get things right.

“I think Ten Hag is going to get until at least Christmas,” Neville predicted.

“The board aren’t going to do anything stupid. He’s going to get a few months, there’s no doubt about that. No doubt that [sporting director] Dan Ashworth has got a calm to him.”

Carragher disagreed as he added: “Why would it be stupid? We can see after three games what Arne Slot is about. After two years of Ten Hag, we still can’t see it.”