Rio Ferdinand: Every Manchester United player will be responsible for keeping Barcelona’s Lionel Messi quiet

Leo Messi – Barcelona (Getty Images)

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Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand insists that the whole team will be responsible for keeping Barcelona attacker Lionel Messi quiet during the Champions League final at Wembley.

The two sides are set to lock horns to decide who will be crowned champions of the continent on May 28, with the Red Devils looking to avenge their defeat by the Catalans in the 2009 final.

The former Leeds United man also admitted that the Argentine is one of the best in the world, and told talkSPORT: “Messi is one of, if not the, best player in the world. He can hurt you anywhere on the pitch.

“It’s not just going to be down to one or two people to take care of someone like him, it’s going to be down to the whole team. But they will be thinking the same thing with the players we have got – we’ve got some players that can hurt you from all over the park.”

Despite clinching the Premier League title on Saturday and reaching another Champions League final, the current United squad have been compared unfavourably with their predecessors by some critics.

Ferdinand, though, is not concerned about such slights.

“When you look back at the end of the career I won’t be thinking about what’s been said about the squad,” he said. “I’ll be thinking: ‘Did we win the league this year? Yes we did.’ The manager has said we maybe haven’t got a Ronaldo-type player like we did before but the team ethic in this squad is phenomenal. I think you’ve seen that over the season with various different results.

“The resilience in this squad is what’s made us stand apart. I think more than anything our home form won us the league this year. We’ve been phenomenal at home with almost a 100 per cent record. When you do that you can have an iffy away record like we’ve had this season and get away with it.”