Rio Ferdinand Reveals Two Most Underrated Manchester United Players He Played Alongside At Old Trafford

Rio Ferdinand has insisted that Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick are the two most underrated Manchester United players that he played alongside.

The 42-year-old United legend won six Premier League titles and a Champions League during a remarkable 12 years at Old Trafford.

Ferdinand, Hargreaves and Carrick were all an integral part of United's 2008 Champions League triumph, as the Red Devils beat Chelsea on penalties in Moscow.

Hargreaves arrived at Old Trafford in 2007 from Bayern Munich, but his four years at United were plagued with injuries.

Carrick enjoyed a prolific 12-year playing career at United and forged an effective midfield partnership with Red Devils legend Paul Scholes.

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Speaking on The Big Interview podcast in 2020, Ferdinand admitted that he couldn't hold back his excitement about seeing Carrick, Scholes and Hargreaves play together.

The former United star added that Hargreaves was "such an underrated player in terms of what he had."

Ferdinand explained: "I said I couldn't wait to see Scholesy, Carrick and Owen Hargreaves play together because I knew the German influence, the discipline and the receptiveness to information that Owen had. He was such an underrated player in terms of what he had.

"If he didn't have injuries, he was the [Claude] Makelele of his time, maybe even a bit more to his game. He was on that level.

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"He could shut someone down without a shadow of a doubt. He was the quickest at the club at the time, we did all the tests and all the 10- and 15-yard runs.

"He was aggressive and tactically he was impeccable and when I shouted 'up, back, left, right' or whatever, he was almost army-like and Michael Carrick was the same. They knew it was for the benefit of the team.

"So when people say Michael Carrick didn't make tackles, he didn't need to half the time. His reading of the game was so good, but also I communicated behind him, saying which way to go."

Topics: Football, Manchester United, Owen Hargreaves, Premier League, England, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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