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Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has said that goalkeeper Andre Onana was the lone bright spark in the team's dismal 3-0 Premier League defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday (September 29).
Erik ten Hag's side made a poor start, conceding inside three minutes as Brennan Johnson put Spurs in front. Things turned from bad to worse when captain Bruno Fernandes saw red on the cusp of half-time for a challenge on James Maddison.
Spurs then scored through Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke to make it four league games unbeaten against United, winning two, for the first time since December 2014.
Meanwhile, United's third league defeat in six games plunged them to 12th in the standings, having also lost the same number of matches after six rounds of games last campaign.
Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel 'Rio Ferdinand Presents' (via Metro) that Onana deserves praise for keeping the score at 3-0, elaborating:
"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."
The former Manchester United defender continued:
‘An absolute piss-poor performance, I’ve got to be honest. 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.’
Following the Spurs defeat, Manchester United are eight points behind leaders Liverpool (15).
"This is not good enough" - Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag
Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has said that his team had their opportunities when it was 11 vs 11, but the Bruno Fernandes dismissal eventually scuppered their chances of a comeback.
Nevertheless, he admitted that his team were second-best to Tottenham on the night at Old Trafford and need to fare better, telling BBC Match of the Day (via BBC):
"We had chances and our moments to get back in the game, with Joshua Zirkzee and Alejandro Garnacho when we still had 11 players, and then after the red card too we had moments.
"We had our chances before half-time, and in the second half with 10 men we had chances as well. It definitely had an impact on the game. I don't think it was a red card."
He concluded:
"First we have to deal with this and show resilience. This is not good enough. We have to accept this and get better. Focus on the next game, and do things better than we did today."
Manchester United now turn their attention to the continent, where they visit FC Porto on Thursday (October 3), having drawn 1-1 at home to FC Twente in their Europa League opener.
