Erik rewarded for wielding axe
RAHEEM STERLING high on the right, Mykhailo Mudryk high on the left and Nicolas Jackson high through the middle. Here was one press pack even Erik ten Hag was going to struggle to shut out. The day after taking on the media, though, Ten Hag had his sights on a different set of targets.
This was the night he sent a message to his Manchester United malcontents.
Out went Marcus Rashford, dropped after a performance of quite staggering apathy at Newcastle on Saturday night. Out went Anthony Martial, demoted to substitute alongside Rashford after rowing with his manager over a lack of effort tracking back at St James’ Park. Out went Raphael Varane, disappearing from the squad altogether as Jonny Evans returned as the reserve centre back.
The official line was that Varane has a bad back. If that’s right, it’s probably because he’s spent so much time sitting on the bench recently following his fall-out with Ten Hag. Having been a key man at United, the World Cup and multiple Champions League winner hasn’t started in nine games since questioning his manager for playing Evans ahead of him alongside Harry Maguire. ‘We don’t know what’s happening with Varane, but something is wrong,’ said his old France team-mate Patrice Evra on Amazon Prime. Evra knows what it takes to make a great team. Even the best of them have to put a shift in. ‘Every successful team, they run, that’s the basics,’ he added. ‘Against Newcastle, it was unprofessional. ‘Players didn’t want to be on the pitch. Rashford… I remember Giggsy at 39, he wouldn’t give up like that.’ Having drawn what he felt was a line in the sand with the media — however misguided his actions might have been — Ten Hag did the same here with his underachieving squad. Too many managers have fallen foul of player power at Old Trafford over the last decade. If the Dutchman is to survive, he needed this: a team selection that put his sulking stars in their place, and a response from the players deemed worthy of wearing the red shirt. United’s energy and spirit here could not have been in greater contrast to the dog’s dinner they served up on Tyneside. How apt that the goals came from Scott McTominay, the homegrown midfielder who turned down West Ham in the summer because he didn’t want to give up his United career. That’s six for the season for McTominay — two more than Rashford and Martial combined.