Rio Ferdinand came prepared.
After Manchester United’s capitulation at Anfield on Thursday night, their former centre-half had a list of names at the ready.
It was a list of players who had been deemed surplus to requirements by Louis van Gaal and moved on elsewhere.
It included the likes of Angel di Maria, who seems to be scoring a goal of the season contender every other week for table-topping Paris Saint-Germain.
It also featured Javier Hernandez who has scored 21 goals in 21 games since being let go. Patrice Evra was also namechecked as left-back has been a position where United have been left shockingly short since Luke Shaw’s injury.
Ferdinand claimed that his list of players would do a better job on the pitch than the side selected by van Gaal on Thursday and, on evidence of the performance, it would be hard to dispute his point.
“There’s a list of players I’ve written down here; Di Maria, Nani, Evra, Welbeck, Chicharito, Evans, Fletcher, Rafael, Kagawa, I could go on,” Ferdinand told BT Sport.
“Are they worse than the players that were out there? They’re better than that team out there, them players.
#mufc XI: De Gea, Varela, Smalling, Blind, Rojo, Schneiderlin, Fellaini, Memphis, Mata, Martial, Rashford. pic.twitter.com/snElBB8LML
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 10, 2016
“That’s the problem and that’s why [from] what I see there’s been a shift in the past couple of years that’s almost, well it has gone backwards, and that’s the disappointing thing.”
