Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford came off the bench to score the only goal in today’s 1-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Why did manager Erik ten Hag drop him? Rashford himself confirmed the reason that he was dropped- oversleeping and missing an important team meeting this week.
“It’s the team rules,” Rashford said. “It’s a mistake that can happen. Disappointed not to play but I understand.”
Ten Hag with Rashford at full time after his goal earned #mufc the three points at Wolves. pic.twitter.com/f8reLFgdRe
— Charlotte Duncker (@CharDuncker) December 31, 2022
Rashford scored his sixth Premier League goal, which leads the team, in the win at Wolves today. As you can see from the Twitter post above, all’s well that ends well with Ten Hag and Rashford, as they ended the day on good terms.
The fact that Rashford said exactly what happened, owned up to it, and wasn’t pressured into hiding the truth by his bosses, says a lot about how much Ten Hag has reworked the dressing room culture.
Said United left back Luke Shaw on Ten Hag’s dropping of Rashford: “People can’t do what they want. Maybe that’s been the problem in the past.”
Exactly, now United has a real man manager, something that hasn’t been around Old Trafford for awhile. We saw that in the way that ETH handled Cristiano Ronaldo and his diva act. We saw it again here with Marcus Rashford.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
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