One thing Erik ten Hag cannot be accused of is failure to back his Manchester United players.
While the recently departed Jadon Sancho may feel hard done by, Ten Hag has more often than not come out to bat in press conferences for his players. The most recent example of this came in midweek when the United boss was presented with Alan Shearer’s analysis of Marcus Rashford.
The Newcastle United legend took presenter Gary Lineker to task when he mentioned that at least Rashford was making the runs after being caught offside too often and putting in a below-par performance. Shearer fired back: “Yeah, but he’s not a youngster any more.
READ MORE: Ten Hag criticises Shearer for Rashford criticism
READ MORE: United player ratings vs Liverpool
“He has to understand the position and look across the pitch when you can see the whole of it, you shouldn’t be offside then.” Ten Hag failed to see the merit of this criticism, responding: “Everyone gets criticism from you guys, it doesn’t matter what we are doing, if we are winning, if we are losing.
“If I take a player off, the conclusion is I was not happy with him. I was very happy with Rashy in pre-season, against Fulham, also against Brighton.
“Stupid analysis in this case from the pundit.” While his steadfast backing of Rashford will have benefitted the player in midweek, it did not do much to improve his performance.
With United heading to a 3-0 defeat, Ten Hag looked to his bench to try and salvage something from the fixture. The decision was made to bring Amad on and take off Alejandro Garnacho.
Upon seeing Garnacho heading to the touchline, Old Trafford erupted in boos for the decision with it clear that the supporters in attendance felt Rashford should have made way. Like with every defeat, there will be a post-mortem from Ten Hag but with the international break now upon us he needs to figure out how to get the best from Rashford to avoid scenarios like this happening again.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
