Rio Ferdinand: Manchester United is not lacking experience despite departures

The England defender confident in his team's ability to challenge next season and tips Anderson to play a big role, particularly after Paul Scholes' retirement

By Michael Raven

Jul 16, 2011 1:35:00 PM 

Rio Ferdinand believes Manchester United still has enough experienced players in their side to battle for Premier League victory, despite having seen the likes of Edwin van der Sar, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Wes Brown, John O'Shea and Owen Hargreaves all leave the club recently.

While coach Sir Alex Ferguson has been quick to spend in the summer transfer market, he has opted for youth in the form of goalkeeper David De Gea, 20, and Phil Jones, 19, but Ferdinand is confident there is still enough experience in the Old Trafford squad.

"I don't agree we lack experience," Ferdinand told Sky Sports.

"We have other players who can step into those holes. You have people like myself, Vida [Nemanja Vidic], Park Ji-sung, Patrice Evra, Darren Fletcher, Wayne Rooney. I could go on," he explained. "Players who have been here for five or six years and, in that period, played in top games consistently. That counts for a lot of experience and nous about what it takes to win the league.''Ferdinand did, however, admit that the loss of Paul Scholes would be a blow and speaking to  reporters at the club's away kit launch in Niketown, Seattle, he insisted the midfielder could have played on.
"I have always said it, Paul Scholes is my favorite player,'' he said.
"He is one of the top two players I have ever played with and I thought he could have gone on for a couple more years," he continued. "But it is his decision to stop and you have to respect that.''The 32-year-old believes it is impossible to replace Paul Scholes, but feels the club have players available who can make up for his absence next season.
"When people like Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy left, we didn't go like-for-like in replacements,'' he said.
"We got different players who had a great impact. We have players in the squad already who have the potential to do that," said Ferdinand, indicating that further spending might not be necessary. "Anderson has had a lot of injuries over the last couple of years and missed a couple of pre-seasons. Hopefully this time he will have a good preseason and we will see the best of him.''