Rio Ferdinand has changed his tune regarding Manchester United and the UEFA Europa League over the course of four months.
On Saturday, Erik ten Hag’s men dropped further points in their uphill struggle to catch up with the top-four challengers and subsequently clinch a spot in next season’s reformed UEFA Champions League. Bruno Fernandes’ two equalisers rescued a draw away to Bournemouth.
t leaves United now one place worse off in the Premier League standings, due to Newcastle’s triumph over Tottenham earlier in the day. They sit seventh on 50 points, while Aston Villa sit fourth with 60 points and the opportunity to extend that gap against Arsenal on Sunday.
“It’s an uphill task [to qualify for the Champions League] now. I was confident about a month or two ago, but now no, I can’t see it,” the former Reds defender told talkSPORT prior to yesterday’s match.
We’ve not done that all season, so why is it going to happen now? So, I just can’t see Man United being able to get past those two teams to get into the Champions League, not at all.”
He was then asked if this outcome would only suit his former club should they miss out on European football entirely for next campaign, allowing the players to focus only on the domestic fight.
“Maybe, but also cup competitions can galvanise the place, it can get the place up,” he admitted. “Man United are in the FA Cup right now, if we said, ‘Listen, just concentrate on winning the league,’ we’d have no hope now, nothing else to play for at all.
“So sometimes if you can use cup competitions to your advantage and you can get a bit of momentum in them, they can be a spark plug for league form as well.
“Listen, without Champions League football at Man United, it’s very disappointing but I always look at it from a player’s perspective.
“Jason [Cundy] you’ll understand, Andy [Goldstein] maybe not, you want to get your hands on some silverware, if you’ve got a chance to do it, you take it.”
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