Rio Ferdinand has revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson never handed him and defensive partner Nemanja Vidic much credit.

Ferdinand and Vidic formed arguably one of the best central defensive pairing in Premier League history and the duo played a key role in helping United to five titles between 2007 and 2013.

Despite their undoubted importance to the team, Ferdinand has now gone on to reveal that manager Ferguson never paid him or the Serbian too much acclaim.

Ferdinand said: "It is one of the things that pushed me on. With Ferguson, he was very much on your case at all times. It was good. He was very much about personalities and working you out.

"I used to feel I was never given enough credit. Me and Vidic used to talk about it quite a lot. It wasn't until I retired he said 'your personality, if I had given you too much credit, you might have got carried away'.

"All the time I was trying to get that credibility from him. He did have that for me as a player."