Martial gave a glimpse of what Manchester United fans should expect on his debut after joining from AS Monaco in September 2015, scoring a wonderful solo goal against Liverpool in a 3-1 win.
Since then the 25-year-old has blown hot and cold in his performances, dividing opinions among the United fan base.
Martial looked dull against Southampton over the weekend as Manchester United were held to a 1-1 draw and was substituted before the hour mark.
Ferdinand believes given his undoubted ability, the former AS Monaco forward is underperforming and has demanded an upturn in performance.
"I think the most frustrating thing about him is that he’s actually gone backwards from when he first signed,” Ferdinand said on his FIVE YouTube channel.
"If you’re a player and you look at when he hit the scene with the two goals against Liverpool and you think to yourself, 'Wow what have we signed here?'. He’s not really hit those heights since.
"As a player I’d love to be able to get inside his head and spend time with him. Everyone thinks they can affect someone with a conversation.
"You’d be saying to him, 'Are you actually happy with what you’re doing, are you happy with your trajectory of how it’s going?'.
"Talent wise, from what I’m told from people, I remember Michael Carrick first went in and saw him and said, 'Rio, this kid could be one of the best players on the planet easy, some of the stuff he does in training takes your breath away'.
"But sometimes there are players who are great in training but don’t replicate enough in games. I hope he’s not going down [that route].
‘He’s still young enough to change it by the way but I don’t know what he needs, a rocket, or he needs someone in the changing room to be getting hold of him and demanding standards every single day and every single game."
