Ferdinand picks Man Utd ‘joke’ among trio key to improvement under Ruben Amorim | OneFootball

Rio Ferdinand has picked out the three players key to Manchester United’s recent improvement under Ruben Amorim.

The Portuguese boss was being tipped for the Old Trafford sack for the first couple of months of the campaign, which featured Premier League defeats to Arsenal, Manchester City and Brentford, as well as the harrowing League Cup exit at the hands of League Two Grimsby Town.

But a run of five Premier League games unbeaten to lift United to seventh in the Premier League has granted Amorim breathing space and hope for the future of the club, with a number of players – old and new – producing fine individual performances.

When asked who United’s ‘most important player right now’ is, Ferdinand said on Rio Ferdinand Presents: “I don’t think it’s one man. It can’t be down to one man. [Matthijs] De Ligt has been our best defender this season, he is even adding goals for us, like the last-minute goal the other day.

“But in terms of his his press, he’s assertive and has willingness to go into foreign areas of the pitch to defend at right times. His clearing out of his box is brilliant.

“[Bryan] Mbeumo has been a joke as well. He’s really stepped in and been a mainstay and is someone who can give us two or three seconds on the ball, score important goals for us, create chances.

“I saw Thomas Frank’s comments about him yesterday, being a complete winger. I think, by the end of the season, he will be one of the most complete wingers in the league. He can do everything, he just needs to keep consistently doing that in a red shirt.”

Amorim will be without Mbeumo over the Christmas period and into the new year when the Cameroonian heads to the Africa Cup of Nations.

And the United boss admitted that his absence may lead the Red Devils hierarchy to push for reinforcements in January.

“Of course, we are going to have a problem there, but we already knew that,” he said. “So the management of that situation is going to be hard.”

“But let’s see when the window is open, if we can improve the team and try to repair something that happened. Until then, we have to take the chance.”

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Ferdinand also named Senne Lammens, who joined from Royal Antwerp for £22m in the summer, as another key player in their upturn.

The 23-year-old spent the first three games on the bench but has now asserted himself as United’s No.1 ahead of Altay Bayindir after Andre Onana joined Trabzonspor on loan.

“And the goalkeeper,” Ferdinand continued. “You can’t talk about anyone being our most important player without the goalkeeper.

“It is no coincidence with our upturn in form that we have a goalkeeper it seems all our players trust.”