Rio Ferdinand says Andre Onana can ‘walk away with his head high’ after the Red Devils’ 3-0 loss to Tottenham and is the only Manchester United player to emerge ‘with any sort of credit’ from the game.
United went behind inside just three minutes, with Micky van de Ven setting off on a scything 70-yard run before assisting Brennan Johnson with a pinpoint cross to silence Old Trafford.
The hosts’ afternoon went from bad to worse as Bruno Fernandes was shown a straight red card for a reckless challenge on James Maddison in the 42nd minute and goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke put the game out of sight in the second half.
Tottenham held firm to consign United to their third defeat of the Premier League season, with Erik ten Hag’s men stranded down in 12th place – eight points adrift of leaders Manchester City.
Ange Postecoglou’s in-form Spurs, meanwhile, rose to eighth with the victory, their fourth win on the trot in all competitions.
The visitors could have won by more had it not been for goalkeeper Onana, who twice denied a misfiring Timo Werner with a pair of fine saves at the Theatre of Dreams.
‘Do you know who I’ve got to give a shout out to, who got a lot of stick last season? Onana,’ legendary ex-United defender Ferdinand said on his Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel.
‘Without him, it’s six or seven today. Onana has been good this season, he’s stepped up, he’s made some big saves.
‘Yes there’s been the odd thing here [and there] but he’s been what you want to see. What I expected to see from Onana is what I’m seeing this season.
‘He’s the only one today who comes out of the game with any sort of credit, any sort of positives.
‘He can walk away with his head high. He won’t because he’ll be sitting there hurting, he conceded three goals. But he wasn’t at fault for any of the goals, he kept us in the game.’
Ferdinand blasted United’s ’embarrassing’ showing and said the team had simply fallen back into the malaise they found themselves in last season.
‘An absolute piss-poor performance, I’ve got to be honest,’ the former England centre-back added.
‘Powderpuff, embarrassing, no real idea it seemed, no real fight. Second half, a little bit of fight here and there.
‘But a distinct lack of quality, I could go on.
‘We started poor, man. We just looked easy to play against.
‘The way we started the season, we just fell back into what we were before.’
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