Rio Ferdinand has questioned David Moyes’s policy of selecting the Manchester United team close to kick-off, with the defender claiming it can turn him into a “madman” wondering if he has been chosen.

The 34-year-old suggested that Alex Ferguson’s policy of naming his XI well before the match made it easier for players to build the requisite intensity on match day.

“This manager’s a bit different in that he doesn’t name the team beforehand. You don’t really get to know the team,” Ferdinand told BT Sport. “The old manager used to give you a little bit of an idea if you’d be playing and stuff.

“When you know you’re playing, the intensity goes up a little bit more on match day. That’s what you need to try to make sure you’re doing, even if you don’t know you’ll be playing – to try to get to that intensity you’d be at when you know you’re playing.

“It’s hard. It’s hard to do that mentally because you spend a lot of nervous energy thinking: ‘Am I playing’ or ‘Am I not playing?’ and you’re just going round in circles in your head and turning into a madman.”

'Totally focused'
Yet Moyes denied this to be the case. "It would be the same for every player if that was the case because I would think that a lot of the teams do that. But that happened to me and I never felt that way," the manager said. "We do it in different ways. Sometimes we name it, sometimes we name it late on. I think sometimes a lot of managers leave it so the press don't get the teams too early."

United host Newcastle today’s standing 12 points behind the leaders, Arsenal, and five points from a Champions League berth. Moyes does not feel that qualification for next season’s European Cup is in doubt. “We are totally focused on winning against Newcastle and climbing the table and, if we do that, we can start looking at what’s next,” he said.

Despite Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat to Everton at Old Trafford which drew scrutiny of Moyes’s management, he is confident that, after Ferguson’s retirement, fans comprehend the situation at the club. “I think Manchester United supporters understand fully that it was always going to be transitional and that it will be a bumpy road at times. There is a bigger picture here and we are looking at that as well. I am the manager of Manchester United and I think it was always going to be a bit like that (bumpy). It would have been the case if it was anyone else because it is a changeover period. We have the next game coming up against Newcastle United and we will try to do something about it.”

Uneven form
Asked the reasons for the champions' uneven form, he said: "It is just because we are a bit inconsistent in our play. We haven't quite had our rhythm where we have a regularity of what we are going to get. There have been signs, and if we had won you would have said we are on a great run. We have been on a good run – not a great one but a good one."

Wayne Rooney is suspended for Newcastle’s visit and Robin van Persie’s groin problem makes him a doubt, meaning Moyes could be without his two key players, who have scored 18 goals between them.

Moyes will move in the January transfer window if the right player is available, saying that a new addition would give the club a lift.

Guardian Service