Ferdinand is set to feature along with John Mensah at the hear of defence on Sunday against his former club West Ham.
“Here’s his challenge,” said Bruce. “He’s been here a couple of years and it’s about time he grabbed it. That’s the challenge to him.
“It’s a bit like Danny Welbeck’s done, coming into the team and giving me a huge, huge problem. I hope Anton can do that too.
“John Mensah needs a run of games as well. We all know what a talented player he is but we need them to step up to the plate.
“I’ve still got [Paulo] Da Silva and the option of [Nedum] Onuoha, too. But they’re the immediate ones; the challenge is there for Mensah and Ferdinand.
“We were disappointed last week because defensively we were all over the place and gave away bad goals, which hasn’t been us. That was us last year.
“There’s only Chelsea and Manchester United have kept more clean sheets and that was the reason for our success, we didn’t give much away, we were hard to beat.
“It’s cruel we’ve lost two of them, I just hope we can overcome that.”
