Rio insists Mount needs time after poor start at Man Utd

Rio Ferdinand believes it is too early to judge Mason Mount after a lacklustre start to his Manchester United career.

England midfielder Mount joined the Red Devils from Chelsea for an initial £55million this summer but has struggled to make any sort of impact in his first two Premier League appearances.

The 24-year-old failed to inspire his new team in an unconvincing narrow 1-0 win over Wolves in their opening game before being overrun in a deeper position during a 2-0 loss at Tottenham last Saturday.

Speaking on Vibe With Five sponsored by LiveScore, ex-United defender Ferdinand said: "You can't judge a man after two games. You can't. 

"Because there'll be players who became legends [at United] who wouldn't have been judged that way after two games.

"Patrice Evra wouldn't have had a Man Utd career if we'd have judged him after his first few performances. He'd have been sent back to Monaco."

Though Ferdinand conceded that Mount's performances have so far not been up to scratch, the six-time Premier League winner believes responsibility for United's poor start should fall on manager Erik ten Hag.

He added: "We're talking about the Man Utd team not playing well. So when you've got someone who's new in that, it's going to be such a difficult platform to play well on.

"I'm not here to give loads and loads of excuses to Mason but that's a fact.

"You look at the Chelsea team in recent years. With players coming in, it's been hard to perform in that team because it's so all over the place at the moment.

"You go into [Manchester] City's team, you slot straight in — look at how [Mateo] Kovacic has come in.

"This team at the moment isn't playing well enough. That falls under the manager, 100%. He's got to get them playing well."

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