Erik ten Hag admits two Manchester United players are not fully fit but started v Man City anyway

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Erik ten Hag has admitted two of his players weren’t fully fit against Manchester City but still started the game.

Manchester United suffered their 11th Premier League defeat of the season on Sunday as they were beaten 3-1 by their neighbours.

United actually put up a tougher fight than many predicted and took the lead early on through a sensational Marcus Rashford strike.

But City weren’t deterred and continued to dominate the play, eventually finding their equaliser through Phil Foden’s screamer just after the break.

Foden would go on to score another and Erling Haaland added a third to compound United’s misery.

It was a difficult afternoon of chasing shadows for Erik ten Hag’s team, made even harder by the fact Rashford and Jonny Evans were playing with knocks.

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Ten Hag says Rashford and Evans played with injuries

Ten Hag told Sky Sports after the match: “We had two players on the pitch which were not 100% [fit].

“Jonny Evans and Marcus Rashford, but they gave everything like the whole team and we are disappointed with the score.

“Absolutely they fought, the togetherness and the performance was very good. On another day we could have won this – small margins.”

More injury troubles for United

Evans played 69 minutes with Rashford lasting a bit longer until the 75th and both should be commended for their commitment.

You certainly couldn’t tell they were carrying niggles in the match as they put in brave performances amid United’s continued injury troubles.

United have been plagued all season and currently have eight first-team players unavailable.

Mason Mount, Rasmus Hojlund, Luke Shaw, Lisnadro Martinez, Harry Maguire, Anthony Martial, Tyrell Malacia and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are all sidelined.

Any team would struggle with that many injuries and it is a big mitigating factor in Ten Hag’s disappointing second season.

Hopefully, Rashford and Evans haven’t hurt themselves further because any more casualties would be disastrous.