Former Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand has revealed defensive partner Nemanja Vidic’s surprise at how good United striker Louis Saha was, according to a report in the Metro.
Ferdinand and Vidic are widely regarded as one of the best centre-back pairings in the history of the Premier League and the former Red Devils defender Ferdinand has now revealed how surprised his defensive partner Vidic was at forward Louis Saha’s gameplay.
Speaking to Declan Rice and Mason Mount for Copa90 about Saha, as cited in the Metro, Ferdinand said:
“He was a massively underrated player. I remember Nemanja Vidic came to the club and he was like ‘Rio, what is this?’ ‘Saha, in training he was so hard to play against because he had movement, he was skillful and he was strong.”
“He was one of them who wouldn’t even know that he’d step on your toes or get an elbow in your eye.”
United signed Saha from Fulham for £12.8m in January 2003 and the French striker went on to score 42 goals in his time playing for the Old Trafford outfit.
Ferdinand also touched upon how strong United were in attack back then, stating the star names he played against week in and week out in training, which in turn helped him improve as a defender.
Speaking about United’s star names in attack, as quoted in the Metro, Ferdinand said: “The thing is it was great for me as a centre back because our front line in training at certain times was Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Rooney, Diego Forlan, some mad names.”
“Then you’ve got to add to that Tevez, Berbatov, Louis Saha. You’d get to the weekend sometimes and you’d be playing against players who were nowhere near that level.” he added
The revelations from Ferdinand come as no surprise given how dominant Manchester United were during his time playing for the club under Sir Alex Ferguson back in his heyday.