Rashford 'can do better than he is now' says ten Hag
WORK TO DO: Eric ten Hag is under pressure as United off to a bad start.
ANOTHER week, another post mortem for Manchester United and manager Erik ten Hag who demonstrated, yet again, that the more things change at Old Trafford currently, the more they remain the same.
A week which featured morale-boosting wins at Burnley and over Palace in the Carabao Cup ended in the same manner that much of the season has proceeded: United well below par and with unanswered questions about virtually every aspect of their football operations.
Arguably, none more so than the question of where the form of Marcus Rashford has disappeared to.
Shorts months removed from the best season of his life, Rashford is mired in a funk that serves as a microcosm of all the dysfunction swirling around the club.
His eight appearances - plus two for England, incidentally - have produced precisely one goal, in the defeat at Arsenal, despite Rashford having permanently moved to the wide attacking midfield position that was meant to be his preferred role; rather than the traditional number nine job he was asked to do at times last season.
Despite being asked to do that, Rashford still managed to net 30 times last term, his best ever season tally by eight goals, while his general play was one of the major reasons there was such optimism going into season two of the ten Hag era.
That optimism has evaporated as swiftly as Rashford’s form and goals.
"I think he knows he can do better than he is now," said ten Hag. "I'm sure it will come. He works hard, that's what he's doing, but it's not happening automatically.
"He has to invest a lot and the team has to invest a lot around him. Today, we were in the right positions but the decision making was not good enough and then we didn’t score.”
Such is life under ten Hag at present, vague promises that “it will come” appear to be his only answer to a start to the season that has now, surely, reached crisis proportions.
Even ignoring off-field problems - Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood, Antony - and they are difficult to ignore, this has been an ignoble start to a campaign that has seen United lose four of their first seven league games for the first time since 1989-90.
That was the season, famously, that a relatively new United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, was under pressure after such a lacklustre start and, by January, on the verge of the sack until Mark Robins scored a late winner in an FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest. United went on to win that competition and the rest, as they say, is history.
With United seven points off the Champions League places after seven games - and, therefore, on course to miss out on the top four by 38 points! - there is a real notion that ten Hag may require such a footballing “miracle” to lift the club out of these dire straights.
Antony, back after his leave of absence, could be available as early as tomorrow (TUES) for the Champions League tie with Galatasary although it is hard to imagine the mercurial Brazilian winger single-handedly turning around United’s season.
There have also been a total of 16 United first team players affected by illness or injury so far this season - a worrying statistic in itself, in what it says about training methodology and preparation at the club - and the latest, World Cup winner Lisandro Martinez, will be particularly missed by ten Hag’s uninspiring defence for up to three months.
But United’s well-documented problems, starting with the wretched ownership situation under the Glazers, suggest that it will take more than a couple of returning players to turn around a ship that is rapidly taking on water and already listing.
And worryingly, with every passing defeat, ten Hag sounds increasingly like a man uncertain as to where he can find answers. At the start of last season, and again this, he blamed United’s problems on a lack of effort. Now, even that is not the issue, according to the manager.
“We have to do better, that’s definite,” said ten Hag. “We have to show it in our body language that Old Trafford is a fortress and you can’t get anything here - that the only way you can go away from here is with a loss.
“I can’t blame the players, that they didn’t run. I think they gave everything, but in the final part, both boxes, we didn’t do well.
“We were often in the right place in the final third but didn’t make the right decisions, on and off the ball. We have to be more clinical, have to be more determined.
“If you want to score a goal, you have to show more willingness and make more impact and score that goal.”
: Onana 6; Dalot 7, Varane 6 (Maguire 87), Lindelof 5 (van de Beek 87), Amrabat 6; Casemiro 6, Mount 5 (Martial 77, 5); Pellistri 6 (Garnacho 60, 7), Fernandes 7, Rashford 6 (Eriksen 77, 5); Hojlund 7. Substitutes (not used) Bayindir, Maguire, Garnacho, van de Beek, Evans, McTominay, Mejbri.
: Johnstone 7; Ward 7, Andersen 8, Guehi 7, Mitchell 7; Doucoure 6, Hughes 7; Ayew 7, Eze 9 (Richards 87), Schlupp 6 (Riedewald 78, 5); Mateta 6. Substitutes (not used) Holding, Clyne, Ebiowei, Richards, Matthews, Rak-Sakyi, Ozoh, Ola-Adebomi.
: C Kavanagh 6
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