Ferdinand disagrees with Carrick ‘decision’ on Man Utd star as Neville reveals ‘liability’ | OneFootball

Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has revealed why he disagrees with Michael Carrick’s “decision” on defender Ayden Heaven.

Man Utd have had a mixed start to the 2026/27 Premier League season with a win, a draw and a loss from their opening three matches.

Carrick’s side continue to show that they can score goals for fun, but they are also conceding too easily and this could be their downfall this season.

After Man Utd did not sign a new defender in the summer, they have conceded six goals in three Premier League games, with the back four of Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw under scrutiny.

And Ferdinand thinks Carrick should be starting Heaven over Maguire or Martinez at the moment.

“We bought Yoro. We bought Heaven,” Ferdinand said on his Rio Presents YouTube channel.

“Yoro I thought he would be a bit further ahead than he is now, he’s taken a little bit longer to push up that ceiling and fulfil that potential. I think it’s still going to come, but I think it’s been slower than anticipated, 100 per cent.

“Heaven, I think he could play now, but the manager’s making a choice and decision and he wants to go with what he’s got, but I would always have one of those two in the backline just for pace at this level, 100 per cent.

“There’s players in the building at centre-half, there’s five players there. Obviously [Mathijs] De Ligt’s not fit.”

“That is my big fear…”

Fellow Man Utd legend Gary Neville is also concerned about his former side’s defence, having noted that their back line is a “liability”.

“Manchester United are conceding two goals a game. From a United perspective you cannot concede two goals a game,” he said on the Gary Neville Podcast.

“This liability of conceding goals, I don’t think it’s going to go away and that is my big fear, I don’t think it’s going to go away. I think conceding goals is going to chase them and hunt them down the road.

“I don’t know how Michael deals with it because he’s got his best back four on the pitch.

“I don’t know why Luke Shaw went off with five minutes to go, hopefully he’s not injured. I don’t know why Dalot went off with five minutes to go. I’ve seen it twice now, both of them have come off in two games.

“To be fair, Ruben Amorim and Erik ten Hag used to change their back four a lot as well. You can’t be changing your back four.

“If you’ve got [Arsenal’s Piero] Hincapie to come on for [Riccardo] Calafiori, maybe you can. But Manchester United have got a back four of Shaw, Dalot, Maguire and Lisandro Martinez and they’ve not got much behind that.

“So you can’t really change your back four at 1-0 or 2-1. It’s not ideal and that is a concern.”