This from official site:
'I was at a charity event recently, one run by the Premier League to get young children to read books. Rio Ferdinand was also there, continuing some of the fantastic charity work he has done during his eight-month suspension.
I spoke to Rio and told him he had the opportunity to get himself into pristine condition in time for his comeback. I told him that, without having the regular cycle of matches, he had the best possible opportunity to improve his pace, his strength and his overall fitness in training.
It looks as if he has done exactly that. I know he has been working hard with the new fitness coach Valter di Salvo to get to that level of fitness. It certainly paid off for him on Monday.
Liverpool got absolutely nothing out of him. Luis Garcia and Djibril Cisse were both utterly frustrated at not being given any time to settle on the ball. And the same happened when Milan Baros came off the bench.
It was a brilliant exhibition of how to defend in a calm and assured manner – his influence spread right throughout the team. I think it was the building block for the whole performance.'
If he had applied his superior motivational skills when he was the manager then maybe things would have turned out differently.