Rio Ferdinand takes Roy Keane to task over Man Utd captaincy after Fernandes hammering
Rio Ferdinand insists it would be ‘crazy’ to strip Bruno Fernandes of the Manchester United captaincy, despite his old teammate Roy Keane suggesting Erik ten Hag takes that very action.
Virtually every United player, plus boss Ten Hag, came in for stick following their woeful display in the 3-0 home city to deadly rivals Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday.
However, former Red Devils skipper Keane was particularly scathing of Fernandes after the Old Trafford mauling and believes Ten Hag should take the captaincy off the Portugal playmaker.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Keane said: “The first thing I’d do is change the captain. Bruno Fernandes is not captain material.
“He’s moaning all the time. He’s the complete opposite to what a captain should be for me.”
Fernandes took the role on after Harry Maguire was stripped of it, a decision that drew plenty of criticism at the time for Ten Hag.
However, Ferdinand does not agree with Keane, arguing there are a lack of candidates at United to replace the former Sporting man in the role.
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Rio rants at Keane comments
Speaking on the FIVE podcast, the Old Trafford legend said: “Who else is there? If there was somebody jumping off the page that you go, ‘Okay yeah he should actually go and get it,’ I would say, ‘Okay you can consider that,’ but throwing out comments like that…
“Saying that is crazy. Because one of Erik ten Hag’s biggest problems has been the amount of sagas there’s been outside of the pitch.
“We’ve had the [Mason] Greenwood situation, you’ve had [Jadon] Sancho, you’ve had Antony, now you want to create another one by taking the captaincy? Look at how that affected the team when Maguire went out of the team and he took the armband off him.
“These are big decisions. The armband at a football club is a massive decision that makes news for all the wrong reasons and you want to bring another saga to the table? I don’t think it’s the right call at all.
“The lens on the club at the moment is so magnified, it’s so laser-focused on the football club for the wrong reasons. Why bring another saga to the table? I don’t think it helps the situation right now.”
United have lost exactly half of their 14 games so far this season and currently sit eighth in the Premier League table.
They will have the chance to get back to winning ways on Wednesday evening though, when they host Newcastle in the Carabao up last 16.
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