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“He’s the better player”: Rio Ferdinand makes bitter comparison between Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Manchester United €100m golden boy

“He’s the better player”: Rio Ferdinand makes bitter comparison between Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka and Manchester United €100m golden boy

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Rio Ferdinand has praised Arsenal’s fearless Bukayo Saka and believes Manchester United’s Winger could learn from the England international’s style of play.

The 21-year-old has been in fine form in recent weeks and has scored in his side’s last three games in all competitions.

After a somewhat inconsistent start to the season, Saka scored two goals against Liverpool, including the decisive penalty, before the fortuitous win over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League.

The Hale End academy graduate capped a sensational week by scoring the only goal in Arsenal’s win over Leeds on Sunday. The Gunners extended their lead at the top of the table to four points.

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And Saka, who last night finished eighth in the Kopa Trophy for the world’s best under-21 player, should now be an automatic starter for the Three Lions at next month’s World Cup, according to Ferdinand.

He said: “In this form, you can’t look beyond Saka at right-back. I think in an England shirt he is too.”

He’s a winger who, when he gets it – I’ve seen it live a few times this year as well – his first instinct and intention is to get past you. We spoke to Nani and he said that was his intention.

As soon as he got the ball in a one-on-one, he wanted to get past the full-back. I like that about him, he’s not afraid, he plays with a bit more maturity every time I see him.

He is in a good period of form at a club that is in a good period of form. He’s confident, and if he’s in that kind of form before the World Cup, I can’t see anyone starting ahead of him.”

While Saka continues to progress at Arsenal, United’s wide players are still struggling to adapt to the tactical demands of new manager Erik ten Hag.

Despite scoring in three consecutive games for his new club, ten Hag urged Antony to show more variation ahead of Sunday’s game against Newcastle, in which he struggled to make a decisive impact.

Jadon Sancho, meanwhile, has not been able to recapture the form he showed at Borussia Dortmund on a regular basis, and youngster Antony Elanga has not started a Premier League game since September 1.

‘We seem to have no imagination in these areas,’ lamented Ferdinand. We used to give it to Nani, Giggsy, Becks even, give it to Antonio Valencia or Cristiano when he’s on the wing. Put him in a one-on-one situation, whether it’s a good ball from Scholes or Carrick and so on, put them in one-on-one and do their thing.

At the moment we’re getting into those positions and unfortunately for us our outfield players are staying out of the way, they’re not killing the flankers, they’re not skinning them.

The best teams wait for that moment in the game, there are maybe only two or three of those moments where they stop the fullbacks, Saka does it at that moment as well as anyone in the league, and they say ‘I’m going to ghost you’.

At the moment, our wide players don’t do it. There are parts of their game that work well, apart from the City game, they are in good form, defensively they do well, but it’s when we have the ball and we want them to make that little icing on the cake. We don’t have it at the moment.”

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