Ten Hag’s splitting headache
Garnacho gripe, uninterested Rashford and catastrophic Casemiro pile on the problems
IT is never a good sign for a manager when stories start to emerge of a player ‘liking’ social media posts about how nasty he is, but that was the supplementary headache for Erik ten Hag after Manchester United’s sleepy showing in Bournemouth.
There is always the Joleon Lescott defence — he once claimed it was not him but his pocket that tweeted a picture of a £121,000 Mercedes while driving after Aston Villa were humiliated 6-0 by Liverpool.
But Alejandro Garnacho faced accusations of a public response to Ten Hag substituting him at half-time during Saturday’s disappointing draw, followed by his post-match explanation for that tweak. Screenshots were shared of Garnacho apparently showing his appreciation for messages written by a YouTuber called Mark Goldbridge, among them mentioning how Ten Hag was ‘throwing a 19-year-old under the bus who has actually delivered for you this season’ and that he is ‘scared of upsetting the bigger earners’ in the dressing room.
Those in the room for Ten Hag’s press conference heard the full reasoning behind why he made that half-time change. It would be a stretch to say he explicitly blamed the teenager, as United’s manager explained he saw the need to tactically repair the right-hand side that Bournemouth had been targeting and that Garnacho had missed most of the training week through illness. Sensationalist though the response may have been, it is never nice for a footballer to be hooked at half-time.
Some United supporters will take this as a sign of a lack of trust in Ten Hag from inside the dressing room, while the stories will not go unnoticed by the club’s new overlords ahead of a summer in which they are likely to make a managerial change.
Garnacho was not alone in putting in a substandard performance at Bournemouth. On the opposite wing, Marcus Rashford showed nowhere near the intensity required. Casemiro underlined why he is no longer up to scratch at a club striving for the next level. And Rasmus Hojlund was largely lost at the head of the attack.
Bruno Fernandes will never win any popularity contests among football fans, as the Premier League player who moans more than most, yet there is a flip side to his strops. They show that he cares. That is a characteristic which seemed lost among many of his team-mates.
Ten Hag insisted afterwards that they are ‘motivated’ in spite of this draw dropping them to seventh — a position which would equal their worst-ever finish in a Premier League season.
Love him or loathe him, Fernandes gives a damn, yet Ten Hag might be heading into the end of this Premier League season not knowing who he can trust to perform for him.
BOURNEMOUTH (4-2-3-1): Neto 6; Smith 6 (Aarons 70min, 6), Zabarnyi 6, Senesi 6.5, Kerkez 6; Cook 6, Christie 6.5; Sinisterra 6.5 (Kelly 39, 6), Kluivert 7 (Unal 76), Ouattara 6.5 (Faivre 70, 6); SOLANKE 7.5. Scorers: Solanke 16, Kluivert 36. Booked: Senesi, Cook, Christie, Neto. Manager: Andoni Iraola 7.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): Onana 5.5; Dalot 5, Kambwala 5.5, Maguire 5.5, Wan-Bissaka 5.5; Casemiro 5, Mainoo 6 (Mount 78); Garnacho 4 (Diallo 46, 6.5), Fernandes 7, Rashford 5; Hojlund 5. Scorer: Fernandes 31, 65 (pen). Booked: None. Manager: Erik ten Hag 5. Referee: Tony Harrington 5. Attendance: 11,229.