Rio Ferdinand criticized Manchester United’s “kamikaze football” after the Red Devils were eliminated from European competition by Erik ten Hag.

Manchester United’s Champions League Group A season came to an end after a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at Old Trafford.

Ten Hag’s club would not have advanced to the final rounds of the top flight league even if they had defeated group winners Bayern, but a Europa League place could have been theirs if they had won.

However, the hosts failed to challenge the German club and created few chances, with Kingsley Coman’s goal 20 minutes from time enough to secure the victory.

Ferdinand, on the other hand, lashed out at his former club’s performance earlier in the group stage, when Manchester United blew a series of leads on their way to their lowest-ever Champions League group stage finish.

“It’s very disappointing,” Ferdinand admitted to TNT Sports. “When the group was announced, you would have expected Manchester United to advance.”

“It’s criminal to score three goals in each of their away games and come away with the points they did.” 12 goals, 15 surrendered – there you have the problem. It’s almost like kamikaze football, or basketball – you attack, we attack. You can’t do it at this level because you’ll be punished.

“You get exactly what you deserve.” If you’re not clinical, if you can’t finish games, you don’t deserve to advance to the knockout stages.”

Manchester United surrendered 15 goals in six group games, the highest ever by an English team in the competition.

Any thoughts of a stirring response following Saturday’s hammering by Bournemouth on their home ground were dashed, with Ten Hag unable to elicit a response from his team.

And, with both Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford out from the matchday squad, the Dutch manager has very few alternatives on the bench to try to get his team going.

“It’s been a really poor campaign,” ex-Manchester United footballer Paul Scholes said on TNT. “I believe it began with the Galatasaray game in the group stages.” When you lose a home game in the group stages, you’re truly in trouble.

“They looked really good in some games.” They were getting two-goal leads and couldn’t hold them. Tonight was perhaps the most disciplined of the bunch, but it never felt like Manchester United were going to score. The discipline was much improved, but they still couldn’t find a cutting edge. “I believe Bayern had three or four more gears they could have used if they really wanted to.”

On Sunday, Manchester United will meet Premier League leaders Liverpool at Anfield.