Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has suggested he has held discussions with Marcus Rashford about his work rate this season.
Rashford has scored only eight goals this season and he was booed by United supporters during the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry at Wembley last week.
The 26-year-old’s Twitter account tweeted at 12.36am on Friday morning, expressing his appreciation for a supportive tweet from a fan account, adding: “It is abuse and has been for months. Enough is enough.”
Rashford’s body language has been widely criticised this season and Coventry players were staggered by how easily he faded during the second half of their semi-final with United.
“He knows, I know,” Ten Hag said when asked about Rashford’s drop-off in form. “It has to do with himself but also to do, of course, with the team and in the first season and a half we had problems. I already said our attacking game has improved a lot after the winter. But before winter our attacking game was not good enough.
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“I think it’s always the two factors I mentioned – it’s the team and it’s himself. They are of course related with each other.
“I think Marcus Rashford is capable every season of scoring 25 to 35 goals. He has the assets to do that. I am 100 per cent confident of this.
“The other thing, yeah, when he is not doing the right stuff out of possession I will confront him with this. Yeah, I will give arguments and also we use data. I think that (such discussions) is an internal matter.”
Ten Hag also believes Rashford has suffered from the lay-offs Luke Shaw has had this season. Shaw has only played 14 times for United due to three separate lay-offs and he has not played since February 18.
Shaw has started outdoor training and he is due to resume team training next week. “They (the players) need also backing, covering and then it’s about the team and we don’t have a consistent back four,” Ten Hag complained. “That’s why (the team struggles to press). That is the main reason when you don’t have that in the back.
“For Rashy, I know he is very comfortable when Luke Shaw has his back because that’s a very good partnership.”
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
