Erik ten Hag makes Rashford U-turn after "we are not happy" at Man Utd admission
Erik ten Hag has backed Marcus Rashford to rediscover his best form after the Manchester United striker's woeful start to the season.
Rashford plundered a career-best 30 goals last season to earn a new £350,000-a-week five-year contract, but has scored just once in 15 appearances this term.
The England striker's miserable start to the season continued when he was shown a red card for an ugly challenge in United's 4-3 Champions League defeat in Copenhagen in midweek. That came on the back of a public rebuke from Ten Hag, who branded Rashford's behaviour “unacceptable” for hosting a birthday party just hours after United lost the derby 3-0 to local rivals Manchester City.
Despite his problems on and off the pitch, Ten Hag has stuck by Rashford and is convinced the 26-year-old will get back to his best, after acknowledging he has not been good enough this season.
“I think he's not happy and we're not happy,” said Ten Hag. “He has high expectations for himself and, at this moment, he's not in his best form. But I know he will be back and, when the team is playing better, he will play better and score goals. I'm confident of that.
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“He will improve and score goals this season. He's totally aware of everything, so he will be back on track. It can happen very quickly. Sometimes you only need one game and I'm sure we will get there.”
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Marcus Rashford and Erik ten Hag have both endured a challenging start to the 2023/24 campaign (Getty Images)As well as in attack, Ten Hag has problems at the other end of the pitch, with United having conceded 10 goals in their last four games. Lisando Martinez is out until the New Year after surgery, while Jonny Evans is out of today's game against Luton after suffering an injury against Copenhagen.
That has left Ten Hag with Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Raphael Varane as his options at centre-back, with the latter likely to be benched again today. Maguire's revival has coincided with Varane's loss of form, with the World Cup winner having started just one of United's last six games in all competitions.
“In this moment, Harry is playing very well and there is internal competition,” said Ten Hag. “As I always said, Harry can do the job — and now he is showing he can do the job.
“Rapha always played the games when he was available because he was doing that well. I think Rapha did very well in combination with Licha Martinez. He was brilliant. I can also see good combinations with Rapha and Jonny or with Victor. They are very good combinations.
“But every time you have to swap your back four, it's difficult. We had a new goalkeeper coming in and every time you form a new back four, the routines are not the same. But that's never an excuse. We want to win games and we have good players across the squad and they can all do the job.”
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