Alan Shearer suspects there’s trouble brewing behind the scenes for Marcus Rashford at Manchester United after he was unexpectedly benched by Erik ten Hag.
Rashford looked to have rediscovered his scoring touch with a goal in United’s 3-0 away win at Southampton, followed up by a brace in the thumping 7-0 Carabao Cup win over League One Barnsley. But he found himself relegated to the substitutes against Crystal Palace.
He came off the bench for the final 30 minutes of the goalless draw at Selhurst Park, with Alejandro Garnacho preferred on the left wing. Red Devils boss Ten Hag attributed the decision to mere squad rotation, but Shearer and his Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker aren’t buying it.
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Speaking on their podcast, The Rest Is Football, Lineker began: “It looks like, reading between the lines, it might be some disciplinary issues because he (Ten Hag) kind of mooted that in his press conference that ‘Marcus has got to be professional’.”
Shearer suggested that must be the case, responding: “Why else would you leave him out? When things have been criticised, and I was one of them, for performances, but then you get your goal last weekend.
“You get another couple in midweek. Why would you actually even contemplate leaving him out? My guess is, and it is a guess, it has to be something different.”
(Image: YouTube/The Rest Is Football)
Ten Hag did hint that Rashford might not be meeting the mark in terms of “professionalism” in his pre-match press conference. “I think he always knew, and every player knows, because when your lifestyle is not right you can’t perform,” he said.
“You don’t get the right levels when you don’t have a good and disciplined life away from Carrington. Probably he needed some help, by backing him for instance. At the end of the day, he has to do it by himself.
“He has to set his life right, his training attitude right, his match attitude right. When he sets his professionalism, he will perform because he is a class player.”
(Image: Sky Sports)
However, the Dutchman claimed the decision to rest Rashford was for the need for squad rotation in his interview with Sky Sports ahead of kick-off. United face a packed schedule ahead, with the Europa League kicking off this week and four games in 12 days before the next international break.
“It was not difficult [to drop him] because we need to rotate,” Ten Hag insisted. “Because we have many games to cover and we have to give Alejandro games – and as we have all seen, he has such a lot of end product, scored so many goals, so many assists, but often as a sub. Also needs starts – he’s had just one start this season.”