“We’re that close” – Rio Ferdinand makes bold Man Utd relegation claim but stats prove him wrong | OneFootball

Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand believes the Red Devils are well and truly facing a relegation threat at the end of the season.

Ruben Amorim’s men continue to sink deeper in the Premier League table. In their most recent act, they fell short against fellow strugglers Tottenham Hotspur in North London. This result saw Spurs overtake United in the standings, leaving them in an incredulous 15th place.

The Reds currently have 29 points in the bag, with a 12-point cushion separating them from Ipswich Town, the club that currently resides in the 18th spot.

Nevertheless, Ferdinand insists this gap might not be enough to waive relegation fears. The legendary defender believes his former club will struggle to pick up the points in their remaining fixtures, as he only sees them earn a result against 19th-place Leicester City.

“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?” observed the 46-year-old on his YouTube channel.

“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. 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.

“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.”

Rio Ferdinand believes Man Utd are facing relegation threat

(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Nevertheless, it should be noted that while a 40-point tally is considered the magical number to avoid relegation, many have survived the drop with significantly less, including Nottingham Forest who only garnered 32 points last term.

In fact, the stats suggest that 35 points should be sufficient on most occasions, and this will likely be the case once again, at least based on the woeful campaigns of the likes of Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton, a similar tally could prove sufficient for the Red Devils, albeit shameful.