Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand’s advice to captain Harry Maguire

‘Sometimes the players in that dressing room need to stand up and put it on people’

(Manchester United via Getty Images)

Former Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand has urged club captain Harry Maguire to lead his side out of their ongoing run of poor form.

United have particularly struggled at home this season, with one draw and three Premier League losses at Old Trafford so far, including Sunday’s 1-0 defeats by Arsenal.

And Ferdinand, himself a former captain of the Red Devils, has called on Maguire to arrest the slide.

“We’re lacking confidence in certain areas,” the 41-year-old said on his Youtube channel, discussing his old team. “We gained a bit of confidence in midweek [by beating RB Leipzig 5-0 in the Champions League], but do they get too overconfident?

“I saw Harry Maguire and a couple of his comments after the game, saying maybe they were patting each other on the back too much. Get a hold of that team – he’s the captain.

“I hope he’s getting in there and getting round people and telling people: ‘Listen, we aren’t the finished article, we’ve got loads to do, there is more from us to come, pull your socks up.’

“I don’t know if that’s going on. The captain of Man United… There’s always been leaders in that changing room who would be going round and drilling people – either one-to-one or in front of the group, pulling people aside, having little conversations to get people up, to make sure they stay on their game.

“I remember Nani, I didn’t chat to him really, it was two or three words: ‘Assists and goals’ or ‘shoot on sight’. Boom, that’s it. It doesn’t need an essay of words. Sometimes it’s short and sharp, punchy little things.

“Are these conversations going on? It isn’t just for the management to deal with that; sometimes the players in that dressing room need to stand up and put it on people.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are next in action on Wednesday, when they travel to Turkey to take on Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League group stage.

That fixture is followed by a Premier League trip to Everton on Saturday.