Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has revealed the advice he would give to help Aaron Wan-Bissaka improve his game. The full-back has caught the eye with his defensive contributions of late, excelling in last week’s victory against Paris Saint-Germain by keeping Neymar and Kylian Mbappe quiet and starring in the 5-0 win over RB Leipzig. However, the Wan-Bissaka has often been criticised for his ability on the ball and his effectiveness in attacking areas when he pushes forward. But Ferdinand believes that this can be developed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and has told the 22-year-old to work hard on the training ground to further his game at United.
Rio Ferdinand said “I’d like to see him sometimes not having to resort to slide-tackling because if something happens and it goes the wrong way for you, you’re on the floor and you are out of the game, but when it comes off, it looks exquisite, In [the PSG] game, Neymar and Mbappe would’ve been going: ‘Who the hell is this guy? — he just kept coming through on the floor. I just hope he’s on the training ground, if you had a weakness in your game, you’d know what he’d be working on, because we can all see it. There are no hiding places on the training ground. [I would say] get the basics right, get the ball at your feet and play, then work out what your second and third choices are gonna be most of the time when you get it on the pitch. That changes, but if you’ve got the basics in — the last resort will be back to my centre-half, the first option will be trying to hurt the other team with a ball over 10 or 15 yards. Rather than just getting the ball and making the decisions when the ball is there. If you’ve got pictures in your mind before the ball comes, but you’ve got to work on that.”