Rio Ferdinand claims 'devastating' Fernando Torres developed a style of football that was designed to 'hurt' his Man United team-mate Nemanja Vidic

Rio Ferdinand says Fernando Torres was one of the only players in history that was able to cause his former Manchester United teammate Nemanja Vidic problems. 

Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Vidic and Ferdinand formed a formidable centre-back partnership that any goalkeeper would have been thankful to have. 

However, the Serbian international struggled when coming up against Torres and Ferdinand believes this was because of the former Liverpool striker’s style of play. 

Rio Ferdinand says Fernando Torres (right) was one of the only players in history that was able to cause his former Manchester United teammate Nemanja Vidic (left) problems

Ferdinand says that Torres possessed a style of play that was built to ‘hurt’ his former Manchester United team-mate. 

He says Torres – who scored 85 goals in 212 Premier League appearances – was a ‘devastating striker’ that knew how to get past Vidic. 

Ferdinand says Vidic’s inability to contain Torres could be seen through the number of cards he received – having been sent off three times while playing against the former Liverpool striker. 

When asked about the rivalry between Vidic and Torres, Ferdinand told The Beautiful Game Podcast:’First of all, it’s the best partnership ever in Premier League history. 

Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Vidic (front) and Ferdinand (back) formed a formidable centre-back partnership that any goalkeeper would have been thankful to have

Ferdinand says Torres possessed a style of play that was built to ‘hurt’ his former team-mate

‘Trust me. Listen, strikers were playing out on the wings sometimes because they didn’t want to come up against us, it was mad!

‘There’s always going to be that one player in your career who’s difficult. He might not be the best player on the planet, but his style is made to hurt your style. And Torres might have just been that for Nemanja.

‘He’s someone he found difficult to play against. And he’s probably the only player I’ve seen consistently give Vida a hard time, and he got sent off in a couple of the games didn’t he, early on in the games.

‘But listen, Torres was a great player and when he was in his pomp when he was at Liverpool, he was one of the best strikers about. He was a devastating striker. But with me one-v-one, he didn’t cause me any problems if I’m honest.’

He says Torres – who scored 85 goals in 212 Premier League appearances – was a ‘devastating striker’ that knew how to get past Vidic regardless of which club he was playing for

Ferdinand went on to say the hardest player he had ever faced – other than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – was Kevin Davies. 

He said: ‘One of my hardest strikers to play against when people ask me — other than the ones that are obvious, like [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi — was Kevin Davies. You would never expect that.

‘But he was always tough to play against for me, always caused me the most problems. He always was physical, just obstructing you all the time. The ball might be over there [away from you] but he’s grabbing you and all this stuff.

‘So you would never expect that, but Torres would have been that for Nemanja probably. But we never really spoke about it.’

Ferdinand went on to disclose the nature of his relationship with Vidic, saying he felt ‘blessed’ to have developed such a strong partnership with the Serbian international.

Ferdinand went on to disclose the nature of his relationship with Vidic, saying he felt ‘blessed’ to have developed such a strong partnership with the Serbian international

‘It’s mad, our relationship, we spent a lot of time with each other after training, in and around the training ground just chatting about loads of stuff, but it wasn’t about our relationship on the pitch.

‘It wasn’t like, ‘Vida you know when you go tight with [Luis] Suarez, I’m going to be behind covering.’ It was nothing like that. We never spoke like that at all.

‘But our relationship was like there was something in the air that I knew he was going to go there, and if he went there, I would go here. If I went here, he was there.

‘Partnerships in the game are not necessarily built just on the training pitch, sometimes you’re just blessed that someone comes into your life at that time and it’s come together just like that. And that’s what we had.’