In recent weeks, Manchester United have been in turmoil. Nothing seems to be going well behind the scenes as the club is close to being bought for 25% by Ineos boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Sportingly, the Red Devils are also experiencing major difficulties. Erik ten Hag is criticized more than ever as stories with players on the squad multiply. And if the Dutch technician had managed to reverse the trend in the league with unconvincing victories (3 victories in a row), the poor last place in the standings in Group A of the Champions League confirms that Manchester United is more than ever in the hard.
This Saturday, the Mancuniens even fell back into the Championship. Newcastle, who held PSG in C1 this week (1-1) managed to get the better of a once again disappointing Manchester United team. But this time, in addition to the result, the English press mainly talks about the attitude of the players during the match. And Erik ten Hag’s reaction obviously did not go unnoticed. During this match, the offensive duo Martial-Rashford displayed an attitude that left something to be desired with minimal involvement. An action concerning the Frenchman caused a lot of ink to flow. Preferred over Hojlund in this match, the former ASM player was little involved in the pressing, letting Fabian Schar restart several times. Exasperated by the attitude of his player after yet another quiet recovery from the Swiss, Erik ten Hag attacked his player on the sidelines. And the Frenchman did not give in by responding vehemently.
“His body language was shocking throughout the match, really”
Exasperated by the behavior of his player as reported Sky Sports, Erik ten Hag decided, in the wake of this game, to remove his scorer from the hour mark. But Anthony Martial is not the only one to have made the former coach of the Ajax Amsterdam. This is also the case for star Marcus Rashford who once again delivered a very disappointing performance with a less than exemplary attitude. Like Martial, Rashford did not participate in pressing and was never even dangerous offensively (0 shots attempted). Enough to crack up Erik ten Hag who punished him by also taking him out on the hour mark. After the meeting, questioned about his player’s body language, the coach was clear: “I will speak to him. I’m not going to talk to you, the media,” he said before trying to calm things down. “I know this problem arises and Marcus is very involved. We support him and he will find his form again.
But the performance of the England international does not go down well with observers at all. At the microphone of TNT Sportsformer Tottenham player Jermaine Jenas has slammed Rashford. “I think it was poor, I think his body language was shocking throughout the match, really. There were too many moments like this and he threw his arms everywhere. I think he’s sending a message to his manager almost like, ‘I don’t want to play here.’. Same story for the legend Paul Scholes who also attacked Rashford. “What is he surprised by when he comes out? I don’t understand. Why does he think he should still be on the field? He was causing more harm than good to the team. (…) Martial, Rashford? There are too many lazy players on the football team, you can’t cope. To get to these places, the first thing you do is work hard.” Nothing is going well on Manchester United’s side anymore and the behavior of the Martial-Rashford duo is not going to help anything, while the next management is preparing to do a major clean-up.
