Rio Ferdinand believes Manchester United’s 6-1 home defeat to Manchester City might have been the best thing to happen to them this season.
United were stunned when City triumphed so convincingly at Old Trafford earlier this season, with Sir Alex Ferguson calling it his “worst day” in football.
But Ferdinand believes the run of eight wins and a draw following the derby defeat, before last Saturday’s home loss to Blackburn Rovers, shows that it proved to be a positive result for the club.
“It pains me to say it, but it (the City defeat) was probably one of the best things that happened to us,” Ferdinand told The Sun.
“We were playing very open football. It made us sit back and think we’ve got to tighten up. If we do that, we have the players to exploit any other team when we go forward.”
United face City for the third time this season – after their 3-2 win in the Community Shield – when they travel to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday for the FA Cup third round clash.
Before that though they have an important league match at St James’ Park against Newcastle United and need to win to keep pace with City after their rivals beat Liverpool 3-0 on Tuesday.
Ferdinand looks set to return to the first team after three games out with a back injury and will give some much needed experience to a defence which consisted of midfielders Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia against Blackburn.
“We’ve got a crazy amount of injuries and illnesses, yet we’re still managing to get results,” he said.
“The manager always said it’s not about 11 men. It’s a squad game now and everyone has to play their part.”
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