Micah Richards and Gary Lineker were in complete disagreement over Erik ten Hag’s handling of two Manchester United players after the 0-0 draw against Aston Villa.
Manchester United walked away with a single Premier League point from Villa Park on Sunday afternoon ahead of the October international break.
Erik ten Hag’s men struggled to make the breakthrough against Aston Villa and failed in their bid to return to winning ways in the Premier League.
United are currently 14th in the Premier League table after their opening seven league matches, with the Red Devils only managing two wins so far.
The Red Devils had suffered a setback ahead of their trip to Villa Park after their 3-3 draw against Porto at the Estadio do Dragao in the Europa League.
United blew a 2-0 lead against Porto and were reduced to 10 men in the second half, but the Red Devils successfully mounted a late comeback to seal a point.
Richards and Lineker on two Man Utd stars
Erik ten Hag made the bold call to drop Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez to the bench for the 0-0 Premier League draw against Aston Villa on Sunday.
Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire came in for Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez and the two Manchester United defenders impressed with their respective displays.
Harry Maguire put in a superb performance in the first half before the United and England defender was subbed off at half-time due to an injury.
Jonny Evans, on the other hand, saw out the full 90 minutes against Aston Villa and the veteran United centre-back earned rave reviews for his overall performance.
United summer signing De Ligt replaced Maguire for the second half of the Premier League encounter, while Lisandro Martinez was left as an unused substitute.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football, Micah Richards said: “You don’t rotate your centre-halves.
“Come on. Let’s be honest. Martinez and De Ligt were dropped, weren’t they?”
Gary Lineker, on the other hand, made the argument that Ten Hag rotated both Martinez and De Ligt due to them playing the “tough” match against Porto.
“I suppose in their defence, you would say, come on, this is just a few days after playing an away game in Europe at Porto, tough game, 10 men through a lot of it as they were the week before,” he said.
Ten Hag on De Ligt and Martinez
Speaking after the Aston Villa match, Ten Hag insisted that Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez’s absence from the starting XI was a purely tactical decision.
“Rotation. We have loads of games,” he said at his post-match press conference, as per Manchester United’s official website.
“We have to rotate the team, the freshness, and I think it was a good decision today.
“I think the performances from Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans, they were very solid. But, also, I think Matthijs de Ligt came in at half-time and was very solid.”
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