Rio Ferdinand blasts Joshua Zirkzee but praises Manchester United trio after Liverpool draw

Rio Ferdinand has picked out Manuel Ugarte, Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot for special praise after Manchester United’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool.

United produced a spirited display against their bitter rivals to end a wretched run of four straight defeats in all competitions, with Amad Diallo squeezing a late equaliser past Alisson to silence Anfield.

Lisandro Martinez had earlier opened the scoring on Merseyside, before Liverpool wrestled themselves back into the driving seat thanks to a wondergoal from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah’s 70th-minute penalty.

The visitors rallied again and came close to causing an almighty upset as Joshua Zirkzee found an unmarked Harry Maguire with the goalmouth gaping at the death, but the England defender blazed his effort over the crossbar and the points were shared.

The result saw Ruben Amorim’s men rise to 13th in the Premier League table, while top-of-the -table Liverpool missed out on the chance to go eight points clear of Arsenal at the summit.

‘I thought yesterday was the first game that I’ve seen where it all came together as one in terms of effort, application, desire, commitment, which was a requirement here,’ ex-United defender Ferdinand said on his Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast.

‘If you’re going to get a result at Anfield then you need all of those, but also composure with the ball in possession, playing out and playing through the lines and also creating chances.

‘Those three different elements haven’t fitted in together seamlessly in any one game yet really. This was the game where it all came together.

‘I was just happy with the commitment because to get a result there you need to be committed and the manager’s words afterwards, it wasn’t about tactics, it was about effort more or less.

‘For any player now hearing that, you know where you stand.’

Ferdinand felt there were impressive performances all over the pitch from United’s perspective, though name-checked three players who really stood out.

‘I thought Ugarte was brilliant yesterday. I thought Mazraoui was brilliant, Dalot was top yesterday,’ he added.

‘But I don’t want to see good seven or eight out of ten this week and then four or five out of ten next week. That’s the benchmark, let’s keep it there and maintain it.

‘It’s easy to get up for Anfield. Where you’re going to get your questions answered, really, is Southampton next week.

‘But what they have to go back to is: what got us that result? We f***ing grafted, we got after people.

‘Sir Alex Ferguson said one of the proudest thing about all his teams was when the manager of an opposition team would come into his office after a game and go, “Phwoar, as good as your players are, all these names you’ve got, they run like a Conference team”.

‘So going back to that, making sure that’s on point, will put these guys in a good place.’

Former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge, analysing the game from the Sky Sports studio, argued that Zirkzee was partly at fault for Maguire’s stoppage-time miss after ‘bobbling’ the ball into the centre-back.

Ferdinand agreed, encouraging Zirkzee and his United team-mates to ‘pass how you want to receive’ in the future.

Asked whether Zirkzee would have apologised to Maguire after the final whistle, Ferdinand replied: ‘After all of it, I would have gone in the changing room and gone, “Bruv, what type of stupidness was that?! What type of pass was that?! We could have won the game!”.

‘But Zirkzee is lacking in confidence so he [Maguire] ain’t going to do that. It’s detail, bro. You know what it’s like? Talk to somebody like you want to be talked to. Pass how you want to receive. Same thing.’

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