Man Utd defender Rio Ferdinand hits out at the club’s decision to sell Rafael after their Champions League defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men had been using European fixtures as a welcome distraction from domestic troubles in the Premier League, beating Group H rivals Paris Saint-Germain away and then trashing RB Leipzig 5-0 at Old Trafford.
The trip to Turkey, though, ended with yet another disappointing display as former West Ham, Newcastle and Chelsea forward Demba Ba helped set Basaksehir on course for a famous 2-1 win.
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The Turkish champions went ahead in the 13th minute when Ba found himself given the freedom to collect a long ball and run from the halfway line before slotting past Dean Henderson.
Captain Edin Visca added a second five minutes ahead of the interval after Deniz Turuc had robbed Juan Mata to break down the left.
Although Anthony Martial reduced the deficit before half-time, the home side – with former Man Utd defender Rafael in the backline – remained resolute to record a memorable victory.
And following the loss, Ferdinand claimed that Man Utd should have held on to Rafael, who they sold to Lyon in 2015.
“We never should have sold Rafael #facts,” tweeted Ferdinand.
And he followed up that tweet by criticising the team over their terrible defending in conceding the first goal.
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“The goals against us….please tell me someone is going nuts in that changing room and people are being made accountable,” said Ferdinand.
“The shape of the team when we lose the ball for the 1st goal.”
Meanwhile, Man Utd boss Solskjaer hit out at his side’s “unforgivable” defending for the first goal.
Solskjaer told BT Sport: “Performance was not good enough against a team that worked and ran and hit us on the break a couple of times. They scored two goals as you do in Europe when you do not defend well enough.
“The first one is that we play a short corner and forget about the man up top. That is unforgivable. The second one as well, we are not very well organised to counter the press.
“Two tough goals to give away and then we did not have enough to come back in the second half. Anthony Martial scored a good goal but the second half we threw everything at it and could not break them down.
“We are a team and everyone has a responsibility. We can play much better.
“I had a feeling [after Anthony Martial goal] and there was a lot of space to play and create but we did not create many chances.
“For them, it is a really nice win and for us very disappointing. We need to improve a lot.
“We are Man United and we need to improve. The games before against Arsenal we did not play our best game. Now we have to step up against Everton.”