Rio Ferdinand outlines why he genuinely fears relegation for Man United

Rio Ferdinand has revealed his belief that Manchester United are capable of winning only one team in their remaining 13 games of the Premier League season.

The former centre back has expressed fears of a potential relegation to the Championship after the Red Devils suffered another disappointing game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.

Ruben Amorim's men have dropped to 15th place in the Premier League table after James Maddison scored the only goal in United's 1-0 defeat to Spurs, who also endured a challenging campaign.

However, with 29 points after 25 games, and 31 points behind leaders Liverpool, the Red Devils are now only two spots above the relegation zone, sitting ahead of West Ham and Wolves.

However, in a podcast on his YouTube channel, Ferdinand has shared his worries about the potential for a surprising drop to the Championship.

He said: 'Manchester United are absolutely struggling at the moment. Only Wolves and West Ham separate my club from the relegation places. Do you realise we’re that close?

'Someone said we need 11 points just to stay up and I’m starting to think like that. I’ve got the fixture list here and I’m looking at the game and I’m being serious here. Go through it.

'Everton away, Ipswich at home, Arsenal, Forest away, Man City, Newcastle away, Wolves, Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Leicester.

Ferdinand's nervousness comes after United has endured their 12th defeat in the Premier League this season.

Eight of these losses occurred under new manager Ruben Amorim, who joined the English side in November 2024.

‘The only place I potentially see us getting anything – and I’m not even saying a win – is Leicester. We’ve slapped up Leicester a couple of times already this season so we’ve got their number,' added Ferdinand.

‘Normally you look at the fixture list and you can see where the points are coming from.

‘We just looked at the fixture list and I’m not seeing outright wins, I’m not looking at it thinking there’s three points here and there’s three points there. That’s the problem.’

After the disastrous game against Spurs, Amorim revealed that he is worried about the team's placement in the domestic league table, yet not about his potential exit from Old Trafford.

The Portuguese was without 12 squad players, but most importantly, he was without a large number of key figures in the midfield, such as Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte, and Christian Eriksen.

The United boss revealed he has to be particularly careful with the Danish footballer following his heart attack in 2021.

The Portuguese was forced to drop team captain Bruno Fernandes down to build a pair with Casemiro, in the middle of their 3-4-3 formation.

However, fellow presenter and United legend Gary Neville has suggested that it could take up to two years for the current squad to fully adapt to Amorim's tactics.

He said: 'How quickly can Amorim and the recruitment team at United get to a point where they can adapt this squad into a 3-4-3 squad?

'It's going to be a minimum of two to three transfer windows because of the investment that's been made and we know clubs on the edge of PSR.

'They've lost £300m in the last three years, so there's a real struggle and a real fight to be able to spend the money that they need in the transfer market as well. There's been a lot of waste in the last few years.'

Despite completing the signing of Patrick Dorgu for £29.4million from Lecce during the January transfer window, United remain in a worrying financial situation.

Several players have left the side during winter, such as Marcus Rashford and Antony, both over loan moves to Aston Villa and Real Betis, respectively.

Earlier, the Portuguese boss admitted that United will have to sell players in order to make new acquisitions during the upcoming summer transfer window.

In this case, the Red Devils may considering selling youngster Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo, who have attracted strong interest from Chelsea and Napoli previously.

Both academy products could be targets again due to the fact that they are worth 100 per cent profit under PSR rules.