Erik ten Hag has dropped his telling verdict on one Manchester United star ahead of the Red Devils’ Premier League encounter with Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Manchester United return to Premier League action with their away trip to Selhurst Park, with kick-off for the Crystal Palace match slated for 5:30pm UK time.
Erik ten Hag has seen the Red Devils bounce back to winning ways after suffering back-to-back defeats ahead of the September international break.
United lost 2-1 to Brighton at the Amex in August before Liverpool secured a convincing 3-0 Premier League victory at Old Trafford earlier this month.
However, Ten Hag’s men beat Southampton 3-0 in the Premier League at the St Mary’s last Saturday before thumping Barnsley 7-0 at home in the Carabao Cup.
Ten Hag praises Man Utd star
Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Erik ten Hag welcomed Marcus Rashford’s turnaround in form in Manchester United’s last two matches.
Marcus Rashford was met with criticism for his missed chances in the Community Shield defeat to Manchester City at Wembley last month.
The 26-year-old United and England star went his first three Premier League matches without netting or registering a single assist for the Red Devils.
Ten Hag kept faith with Rashford and the United forward broke his goalscoring drought last weekend in the away win over 10-man Southampton.
Rashford started the third-round Carabao Cup tie on Tuesday evening and the Three Lions star scored a brace and picked up an assist against League One side Barnsley.
“It’s very good, of course, that your strikers, they are starting to score when the season is very young,” he said, as per Manchester United’s official website.
“Strikers, they need that belief, and we have now a couple of players who are, in the meanwhile, on the scoring list, and it is very good as a team, because that will strengthen their belief, and they will come up for more, and they will score more goals now.”
Man Utd boss Ten Hag on Palace match
Ten Hag is keen to see United bounce back against Palace after the Red Devils suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat at Selhurst Park in May last season.
“Not [any lessons learnt from the 4-0 defeat last season] in particular,” he said.
“We know what will come to us. We know it’s always tough there, always aggressive there.
“But we know also the circumstances and you can’t compare this. We didn’t have a fit squad, we even had one or two players that were maybe up to 20 per cent to play, but we had to play them.
“And this time it’s totally different, we have now a fit squad. We have, definitely, 18 players who are capable [of going] into this good challenge for us.”
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
