Erik Ten Hag Hails Marcus Rashford’s Impact After Being Dropped

The Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has praised his striker Marcus Rashford after he responded to being dropped by scoring his side’s only goal in their 1-0 win over Wolves at Molineux on Saturday.

The Dutchman had dropped Rashford from his starting line-up after the player admitted he had overslept and was late to a team meeting.

“It’s good after the decision,” Ten Hag said. “Rashford came in, he was bright, he was lively and he scored a goal to give a good reaction. Everyone has to adhere to the rules and if you react like this, it is the right answer.”

Despite Rashford being in impressive form and scoring in United’s last two games, Ten Hag still decided to discipline him by demoting him to the substitutes bench, before eventually bringing him on at half-time for Alejandro Garnacho.

“Everyone has to match the standards and the rules,” Ten Hag explained. “So then there have to be consequences, that’s also what I expect on the pitch, there have to be consequences, otherwise you can’t be successful and I think he gave the right answer.

Ten Hag believes his players delivered an underwhelming first half performance as they were not ready for the lunchtime kick-off at Wolves.

“We know when you go here it is difficult, especially the circumstances they are in with a new manager,” he said. “We experienced the same at Aston Villa, there is new energy in the team and around the club, first home game, and you have to be ready for that. We were not.”

“It’s a lunch game but you have to be ready for that. So that’s a responsibility for every individual player and some were not ready, were not on the front foot, were not focused and then you have your problems. If we score first-half then life is easy.”

“I was not satisfied with the performance in the first-half, I think we had good chances to score a goal, we created them, we didn’t [score], so we have to be more clinical.”

“I was not happy at half-time and I told them with this attitude they will not win this game and everyone had to give 10% more.”

With the introduction of Rashford at half-time and the Brazilian midfielder Fred for Christian Eriksen after 61 minutes United improved their tempo and began to assert themselves on the game.

“In my opinion the second half was better,” Ten Hag said. “Fred was winning second balls and linking play when he came on. We know Rashy can score the goals and that’s what he did that when he came in.”

The win moved United in to the top four for the first time this season, but Ten Hag was not interested in dwelling on this for too long. “We made a good step today, first time we are in top four but it means nothing. We have to win every game. We want to try and win something. It depends on hard work from everyone.”

“We are a team that is hard to beat but that’s because we are attacking with 11 and defending with 11 and everyone is matching the rules in a defensive way and that’s why it’s difficult to score against us. If we don’t do that anymore we get punished, and when you are out of the pitch and when you miss the rules and standards it will also flow into the pitch.”