Erik Ten Hag Continues To Trust Marcus Rashford At Manchester United

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has declared his support for Marcus Rashford following the striker’s disappointing start to the season.

Rashford, who scored 30 goals last season, has so far scored only once in 12 games this season. “[We have to] give him the trust, I play him every game,” the Dutchman said at a press conference on Friday. “Most of the games also he finishes. I have a strong belief he will return to scoring a lot of goals.”

“It also has to do with the co-operation, with the movement around [him], with the distribution to him. And so we have to work on that. That is my focus point.”

Rashford is the only striker to have scored for United in the Premier League this season, and Ten Hag has demanded all his attacking players improve.

“We showed this week some examples where we are in overload positions going to the opponents’ goal and we don’t net, or we don’t even hit the target. We should do this better. I’m sure we don’t have time to train this fact, but we get some coaching and I’m convinced with the qualities from our players they will go and score more goals.”

United’s failure in front of goal this season sees them currently marooned in eighth place, but Ten Hag believes after winning their last three games against Brentford, Sheffield United and FC Copenhagen confidence is returning to the squad.

“We are in the right direction, and we have a way to go. I see positives, I see also negatives,” Ten Hag said. “We are not consistently, in possession, on the level where we can be, where we show in games we can be. Like for instance, Arsenal away. Also, the first 30 minutes in Bayern Munich away. We should do this on a consistent basis.”

“But pressing, we are quite good. We have the most ball regains from the whole Premier League, we have the most middle regains from the whole Premier League. So, there you see, our defensive organisation, our pressing organisation.”

“But then, we don’t take the benefit in the attacking transition moments, and we should be because we have the abilities in our team, the players there who can take benefit from it. We paid some attention to it, and this has to grow, this has to progress. Then games will become easier.”

While Ten Hag has not been pleased with his side’s performances, he has enjoyed the resilience they have shown in recent games. “You see, we are back where we wanted to be, this is a hard [United] team to beat, and they find a way to win. So, we are going in the right direction.”

“That is a team that is hard to beat. Sometimes, it’s not the way you want to go but you still have to win and that is what we are doing at this moment.”

United face the ultimate test on Sunday when they host the reigning champions Manchester City at Old Trafford. Ten Hag confirmed his right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka has resumed training after a minor injury, but the Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, who missed the last two games through injury and suspension, is a doubt for the game.