Chelsea winger Madueke was replaced by Mykhailo Mudryk and immediately charged down the tunnel in frustration on Sunday.
Speaking on his Rio Ferdinand presents podcast, the former defender criticised the player and called for the manager to take action against the young talent.
“You think (Danny) Welbeck or Tom Cleverley or Nani are going to storm off the pitch and throw their dummy out?
“It's a young team. Who are the experienced players who are going to go in there and say, "Woah, we don't accept that here".
“And I understand his thinking but at the same time, I don't understand why you are doing that.”
Ferdinand called for a tough punishment on Madueke and believes that Maresca would be showing a lack of authority if he didn’t enforce a fine.
“That's where the manager comes in,' he said. 'I think the manager protecting him is mad.
“And that's why I couldn't be in there (as a manager) because I couldn't come out and play the game where you say, "Yeah he was in the wrong but (he's a good kid). Fined, that's a two-week fine.”
The Italian coach defended his decision after the game and stated that any top player who wants minutes on the pitch will react like Madueke did.
'The problem is when you change a player, they are never happy.
“Probably the only way to be happy is after the Wolves game where he scored a hat-trick and we changed him, so he was happy. It's not only about Noni, it's about all the players.
“It's a good thing because they want to be there until the end. But in that moment, we thought in different ways, probably Pedro with Timber could be a little bit more aggressive - and also with Misha.
“So it was a tactical decision, no more than that.”