London, Dec 23 : Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson had warned his players that they would blow their season if they failed to capture the World Club Cup.

Ferguson gave one of his classic motivational speeches to ensure their 12,000-mile round trip to Japan was worth it. They knew they could fall further behind in the title race and they would definitely add to their fixture backlog, so it had to be worth it, The Sun reported.

Rio Ferdinand, who was captain on Sunday night as United beat South American champions Liga de Quito 1-0 with a Wayne Rooney goal, revealed revealed: "The manager's team talk before the game hit the nail on the head."

"In fact, he hit a lot of things on the head that were needed for us to get into gear. That is the sign of a great manager. We spoke before the game about how, if we lost this game, it could have a big effect on us for the rest of the season."

"We have been in Japan for 10 days and it has been a hard trip, if I am honest, both physically and mentally with adjusting to the time and all that. The manager went into certain points. One of the things said was that if we didn't win it would have a major effect on our season - a very negative effect," Ferdinand said.

"But there are frequent significant moments from the manager, not just team talks but at different parts of the season either on the training field or in the changing room. Sometimes you need to be told the basics and reminded about what got us to where we were last year and the year before."

Ferdinand believes United have failed to hit top gear so far during the current campaign.

They are trailing by seven points in the title race - but have two games in hand on the leaders - and won only two of their Champions League group games, drawing the other four. (ANI)