Erik ten Hag described Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp as “crazy” and insisted Marcus Rashford was not dropped from Manchester United’s team as they were held to a disappointing stalemate with Crystal Palace.
United spurned a series of chances in the first half as Dean Henderson excelled against his former club before Rashford was introduced after the break. André Onana then came to their rescue with a brilliant double save to deny Eddie Nketiah and then substitute Ismaïla Sarr. It meant that United secured a third successive clean sheet after losing at home to Liverpool at the start of September.
But having seen the England forward find the net for the first time since March against Southampton last week and another two against Barnsley in the EFL Cup in midweek, Ten Hag was adamant the pre-match speculation from Sky Sports pundit Redknapp that there had been a falling out with Rashford was completely wide of the mark.
“I heard already speculation from some pundits. That is crazy. I would almost say that, as a person, you are not OK when you bring such speculation if you don’t know,” he said.
“This is just rotation. We have many games to cover. We have more than a starting 11 of players. If the players perform, we will give them their chances. Finally we will find out and the players who perform better will play more. This has nothing to do. I’m very happy with Marcus, with everything. With his defending part, offensive, he scores in this moment, he performs very good. So there is nothing to do with it that he was on the bench, just rotation.”
Asked whether he regretted the decision after United failed to capitalise on their first-half dominance, Ten Hag added: “I have to say Amad is playing very good. Garnacho, in almost all the games so far apart from maybe Liverpool, has had end product. We have to play them as well.”
United face FC Twente in their opening match of the Europa League campaign on Wednesday before hosting Tottenham next weekend, but the manager said they should have gained revenge over Palace following a 4-0 thumping at Selhurst Park back in May.
“We let them [stay] alive in the first half,” he said. “In and out of possession we played a really good game. The only thing I can criticise is we were not clinical enough in the box, not decisive enough.”
The Palace manager, Oliver Glasner, refused to criticise Chris Kavanagh despite the referee opting not to dismiss Lisandro Martinez after the Argentina defender jumped into a challenge on Daichi Kamada in the second half.
“Fortunately he touched the ball and not the shin of the player. He could break his leg,” he said. “The referee decided no red card. I don’t want to complain about the referee’s decision. We made many more wrong decisions than the referee.”
• This article was amended on 23 September 2024 because an earlier version said that Manchester United travel to the Netherlands to play against FC Twente, for their opening match of the Europa League on Thursday. The match is on Wednesday, and it is FC Twente who will be travelling, as the match is at Manchester United’s ground.
