#2Sides: My Autobiography by Rio Ferdinand

Author:Rio Ferdinand [Ferdinand, Rio]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781905825776
Publisher: Blink Publishing
Published: 2014-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

At the beginning of the season Moyes told me: ‘I want to go for experienced players.’ After about eight games, we weren’t playing particularly well, he said: ‘OK, I’m going to have a look at the youngsters.’ That’s fair enough. If I was a young player, I’d want old guys out of the team as quick as possible too. But he overdid it. I suddenly went from being one of the best centre-backs in the league to not even travelling with the team and all the defenders were confused. A lot was made up about Moyes using Jagielka as an example to me and other defenders, but that never happened at all!

‘If you’re under any sort of pressure I want you to make sure you’ve always got that ball out to the side,’ he told us. ‘I don’t want you to take any risks.’

He was bringing the mentality of a smaller club. I never had the feeling Moyes knew how to speak like a Man United manager. You’d pick up the paper and see him saying unbelievable things like we ‘aspire’ to be like Man City or Liverpool were ‘favourites’ against us. If you want to survive, he’s right: don’t take risks. But this wasn’t Everton; it was Man United. We don’t want to survive. We want to win. Of course, when you’re in your own box, you don’t take risks. But when you’re on the halfway line or in the opponents’ half risks do need to be taken sometimes, especially tight, high-level games, if you’re going to win.

It was as if he had no confidence in our abilities. Generally, with all due respect, the players at Man United are at a higher level than those at Everton. But we had the feeling he didn’t trust us to execute things on the field. Even for me the feeling was: he doesn’t trust me, he doesn’t believe in me. No wonder players weren’t going out and producing.

The mixed messages were even worse. Sometimes he’d say, ‘I want you to pass the ball,’ other days it was: ‘I don’t want you to pass the ball.’ What the fuck do you want us to do, man? In the pool you heard a lot of guys complaining: ‘I just don’t know what he wants.’ He had me doubting everything. Remember, we’re all professionals so want to do what our manager is asking us to do; we want to please him; we want him to take us on and make us champions again. Whatever he says, we’ll do.

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