RIO FERDINAND reveals the inside story of the meltdown at Man Utd in Day Two of our exclusive extracts from his sensational autobiography.
The former Red Devils favourite also gives his blunt assessment of why David Moyes flopped at Old Trafford.
MOST of the problems with Moyes seemed to come together for the match that effectively ended our season.
Travelling to Bayern Munich (in the Champions League, having being dumped out of all of the domestic competitions) I was desperate to play and I knew I must be in the team but on the morning of the game everything seemed wrong.
To practise our set pieces and stuff we went to a public park. It was bizarre! Local people started coming from all over to watch us and take photos and videos.
It was amateurish. I mean, why not just send Bayern an email or a DVD? But worse was to come.
As were standing there in public on this bit of grass, the manager just taps me on the shoulder and says: Rio, listen, Im not going to play you. I feel we need a bit more pace in the back line.
It killed me. Inside I wanted to scream and grab him. Im a team player, so I just had to bite my tongue and stand there. But it was probably the worst single moment I ever had at United.
Id never been dropped for a big a game like that and to drop that on me in front of everybody.
Several teammates told me later that my reaction was something theyd never seen from me before.
I went into a daze and even took my anger onto the coach as we waited for him to finish set pieces with the first 11.
Id never shown my feelings like that in front of my teammates so openly before.
I knew my time at United was coming to an end.
Not being involved in the game, at least I had the chance to watch how it all went wrong.
Sir Alex Ferguson used to give simple, concise, clear instructions.
But before the game, Moyes said that depending how Bayern played, we could use three formations!
Hed let the lads know which one when the game got underway. Danny Welbeck was going to play on the right... or it could be on the left... or behind.
Shinji Kagawa was definitely going to play behind, or the left...
We lost and 13 days later Moyes was sacked although it wasnt done in a dignified way, with rumours circulating for almost two days before putting him out of his misery.
I had been very optimistic when he arrived. He was a genuine guy and no one could have worked harder.
He was always the first into the training ground and the last to leave.
He had tried to impose a vision but never seemed to be completely clear what that vision should be.
Unintentionally, he created a negative vibe where, with Fergie, it had always been positive.
Hed slowly lost us. I didnt enjoy playing under him long before the end, Id decided to leave if he was going to stay.
But it wasnt that Moyes had made one big mistake, it was an accumulation of mistakes.
The ban on chips
Footballers are creatures of habit and for as long as I can remember at United, it was a ritual that we had low-fat chips the night before a game. We loved our chips.
But Moyes comes in and, after his first week, he says we cant have chips any more.
We werent eating badly. In fact, youd struggle to find a more professional bunch of players than the ones at Manchester United in the summer of 2013.
United players were angry at chip ban
United players were angry at chip ban
Alamy
Then suddenly, for no good reason we could see, it was no chips. Its not something to go to the barricades over. But all the lads were p***ed off.
And guess what happened after Moyes left and Ryan Giggs took over?
Moyes has been gone about 20 minutes, were on the bikes warming up for the first training session without him and one of the lads says: You know what? Weve got to get onto Giggsy.
Weve got to get him to get us our f***ing chips back.
The pre-match walk
Moyes had us going for ten-minute walks together the morning of a game.
Wed never done it before, no one enjoyed it and no one liked it.
I know some people will think were being prima donnas but a lot of what we do in a team environment is a question of habit and feeling comfortable.
When lots of little things start changing its destabilising.
It doesnt matter if you are a footballer or working behind a machine in a factory.
Cutting our wings off
A bigger problem was his approach to tactics. Moyes obviously wanted us to change our style... but we werent sure what he wanted to change it to.
On our pre-season tour he told me and a couple of others that he wanted us to play a narrow 4222 with the wide players coming inside.
I remember thinking: Have you not read up on this clubs history? This club was built on wingers. It only goes back about 100 years!
Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Steve Coppell, Willie Morgan, George Best... thats quite a tradition.
Changing practices
Moyes innovations mostly led to negativity and confusion.
Under Fergie, for example, before a game on a Saturday we always played a small-sided match on a small pitch on the Friday.
We loved it.
Wed get into the mood for the following day by expressing ourselves, having fun, trying stuff out.
You got your touch right, experimented, got the feeling flowing.
Wed done that for years and suddenly again for no good reason Moyes changed it by making us play two-touch.
It was especially bad for the forwards who liked to practise their skills and shots and movements. They felt restricted.
Youd come off the pitch feeling blocked, frustrated, like you hadnt had a chance to express yourself.
We complained but nothing changed. Then people wondered why we looked cramped and played without imagination.
Rio Ferdinand with Sir Alex Ferguson
In happier times with Fergie
Getty
Trying not to lose
For years we were one of the best teams at not conceding goals. Fergies approach was to focus on the oppositions weakness.
Yet with Moyes it was always how to stop the other side.
Before every game, he made a point of showing us videos of how dangerous the other team could be.
On the morning of a game wed spend half an hour on the training ground, drilling to stop them.
There was so much attention to the subject it suddenly became a worry they must be f***ing good at this to have us spend all this time on it.
That was the different mentality Moyes set us up not to lose whereas wed been accustomed to playing to win.
Losing support
I think Moyes was entitled to bring some of his staff from Everton but it was an absolute mistake not to keep United stalwarts like the first team coach Mike Phelan, who knew all the quirks and sensitivities of the players.
It meant Moyes missed a lot of the subtleties about players and the culture of United.
Making us cross
The biggest confusion was over how he wanted us to move the ball forward.
Often he told us to play it long. Some players felt they kicked the ball long more than at any time in their career.
Sometimes our main tactic was the long, high, diagonal cross. It was embarrassing.
In one home game against Fulham we had 81 crosses! I was thinking, why are we doing this? Andy Carroll doesnt play for us!
The whole approach was alien. Other times Moyes wanted lots of passing.
Hed say: Today I want us to have 600 passes in the game. Last week it was only 400.
Who cares? Id rather score five goals from ten passes!
Small club mentality
Moyes brought the mentality of a smaller club. I never had the feeling Moyes knew how to speak like a Manchester United manager.
Youd pick up the paper and see him saying things like we aspire to be like Man City or Liverpool were favourites against us.
But this wasnt Everton, it was Manchester United. We dont want to survive. We want to win.
Rio Ferdinand's book
Ace's new book
It was as if he had no confidence in our abilities.
We doubted everything
The mixed messages were even worse. Sometimes hed say, I want you to pass the ball.
Other days it was: I dont want you to pass the ball.
What the f*** do you want us to do, man?
In the pool you heard a lot of guys complaining: I just dont know what he wants.
He had me doubting everything.
In September, after Man City beat us 41, he called me and Vida (Nemanja Vidic) into a meeting with the video analysis guy.
I want to show you a few things, said the manager.
He had about 15 clips to show us but we never got past clip five.
We talked for about 40 minutes and came out none the wiser. It got pretty heated.
In one instance, Moyes said: You could have been tighter on Sergio Aguero...
I pointed out he was the quickest player in the league, so if theyve got players good enough to put the ball anywhere they want, going ultra-tight was asking for trouble.
Maybe he had a good point but he never got it across.
Me and Vida came out of there and looked at each other.
I dont know what the f*** he just asked us to do, I said.
Avoiding confrontation
I had the feeling Moyes just wanted to cut the whole video meeting short because he didnt like confrontation.
That was another difference. Fergie would dig out anyone if he felt it would improve the team but bad feeling would never be allowed to fester.
Players left in the cold
A part of the art of being United manager is to rotate your squad and keep everyone happy.
At Everton and other clubs below the very top youve only probably got 13 players in the squad who believe they should be playing every week, based on their ability.
But at Manchester United youve got 22 to 25 internationals who have won titles and cups and they all believe they should start.
Take Chicharito (Javier Hernandez), he was happy for three years.
Moyes starts treating him differently and his confidence goes.
You need to give players the arm around the shoulder.
Players live to play and we feel disappointed and hurt if were not picked.
Looking back, Id say David Moyes was unlucky. He and Manchester United were just oil and water somehow.
His ideas werent bad in themselves, they just didnt fit with the group of players and the tradition and recent history of the club.
- Rio Ferdinand 2014. Extracted from #2Sides My Autobiography, to be published by Blink Publishing on October 2, 2014, at £20.