• Premier League

Ferdinand: Moyes' United reign was embarrassing

Rio Ferdinand has lifted the lid on the David Moyes era at Manchester United, describing some of the tactics used by the former manager as 'embarrassing'.

Ferdinand returned to Old Trafford on Sunday for the first time since his 12-year stay at the club ended in May, only to see his QPR side beaten 4-0 by a revived United. Now, comments taken from his new book #2Sides are set to dominate the agenda after the game.

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No United player has spoken out against Moyes in the months since he was sacked as Old Trafford boss, but Ferdinand has now offered a highly critical assessment of the Scot's tactics during his troubled 10-month reign as the club's manager.

"He tried to impose a vision, but never seemed to be completely clear what that vision should be," Ferdinand wrote in his book, which is being serialised by the Sun. "Unintentionally, he created a negative vibe where, with Fergie, it had always been positive. He'd slowly lost us. I didn't enjoy playing under him.

"Sometimes our main tactic was the long, high, diagonal cross. It was embarrassing. In one home game against Fulham we had 81 crosses! I was thinking, why are we doing this? Andy Carroll doesn't play for us!

"Moyes's innovations led to negativity and confusion. It was always how to stop the other side. Moyes set us up not to lose. We'd been accustomed to playing to win."

Ferdinand also revealed how Moyes dropped him for last season's Champions League quarter-final clash against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, after the coach told his veteran centre-back in front of his team-mates that he was leaving him out because he wanted more pace in his defensive line.

"It killed me," Ferdinand added. "Inside I wanted to scream and grab him. I'm a team player, so I just had to bite my tongue and stand there.

"It was probably the worst single moment I ever had at United. I'd never been dropped for a big game like that - and to drop that on me in front of everybody."

Moyes' training methods also came under scrutiny from Ferdinand who claimed United became too concerned by their opponent's strengths, which created an element of fear within the dressing room.

"Before every game he made a point of showing us videos of how dangerous the other team could be," Ferdinand said. "On the morning of a game we'd spend half an hour on the training ground, drilling to stop them.

"There was so much attention to the subject it suddenly became a worry - they must be f****** good at this to have us spend all this time on it."

Rio Ferdinand salutes the crowd on his return to Old Trafford on Sunday © Getty Images

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