Rio Ferdinand makes Man Utd & Liverpool top-four predictions following West Ham loss

Rio Ferdinand has predicted Liverpool will win all three of their final Premier League matches this season and can keep the pressure up on Manchester United in the race for the top four.

It was a good weekend for the Merseyside club who won 1-0 against Brentford on Saturday and watched Newcastle United and the Red Devils lose on Sunday. It means Liverpool are now just a point behind United and three shy of the Magpies in the hunt for the Champions League places, although Jurgen Klopp’s men have played a game more.

With only three weeks left of the 2022/23 Premier League campaign, Ferdinand was asked for his view on how the final stages will pan out and the former defender feels United having three homes against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Chelsea and Fulham could prove pivotal.

“If you went into that dressing room and said ‘you’ve got three out of the last four games at Old Trafford’, you’d take that,” the 44-year-old said on BT Sport. “The form hasn’t been great of late but they have to find it from somewhere and I think that crowd at Old Trafford have got to play a part.

“The players have to set the tone; they’ve not been good enough in recent weeks and they’ve got to close games out. Liverpool are hot on their heels and it doesn’t look like Liverpool are going to lose any of the last games - I think Liverpool win all of their last three games and it will put the pressure on, but I think United will do enough to make it into the top four. I’d be surprised if they don’t.”

Sunday’s defeat to West Ham United was the Red Devils’ eighth on the road this season in the league, meaning they’ve lost more games than won away from home under Erik ten Hag. Ferdinand claimed his former side have to approach away trips with a different mindset.

“They’re lucky that they have three of the four [remaining games] at home because the away form has been terrible. That’s a mindset thing,” he opined. “When you go away from home there are a lot of other things you have to consider.

“At home it’s ‘let’s go, the crowd are with us’. The crowd are immediately against you when you go away from home so you need to do something to quieten that crowd, whether it’s keeping the ball, playing the ball into the opposition half, getting a shot or tackle. There are different ways of approaching it and I think Man United need to find a way rather than thinking ‘we’re going to take control of games’.”