“He didn’t take it seriously” - Rio Ferdinand admits Manchester United teammate was ‘rubbish’ at Rondo during training

Former Manchester United center-back Rio Ferdinand has discussed football training drills, specifically Rondo, following a social media clip of Erling Haaland practicing it emerged ahead of Manchester City’s match on Sunday (March 31).

In his weekly Five video on YouTube, Ferdinand said that during his 11-year tenure with the Red Devils, the drills were a part of the training that players appreciated, and had strict regulations for. He further elaborated that the senior players of the team performed the drills as a group, separately from the younger ones. Ferdinand also cited the example of Cristiano Ronaldo, who was not part of his set-up in his early years at the club.

Rio Ferdinand went on to explain how some players struggled with the technical training drills and mentioned his former Manchester United teammate Anderson to be one of them. Ferdinand said:

"Anderson was rubbish. He didn’t take it seriously. Rondo is not a joke, it's a drill, that’s what we used to say, you can’t mess about. The young ones used to mess about."

Rio Ferdinand spoke more about the possession drill, Rondo:

“It’s not all about skills. [It’s] can you get the ball to the goal quicker than anyone else.”

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Rio Ferdinand opens up on best Manchester United trainers at Rondo

While speaking of his training experience at Manchester United, Rio Ferdinand mentioned that possession drills were regarded to be crucial at the club.

The former defender further went on and named some of his former teammates whom he considered to be the best trainers. He started his list with midfielder Roy Keane and deemed him to be exceptional at Rondo.

Rio Ferdinand further talked about the likes of defender Laurent Blanc, forward Ruud van Nistelrooy, midfielder Paul Scholes, midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón, Ryan Giggs, and Michael Carrick to be good at the possession drill.

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