Paul Scholes was left scratching his head over one of Erik ten Hag’s decisions this season after believing a Manchester United had finally “turned a corner.”
Erik ten Hag has endured a tough start to his third season at Old Trafford, with Manchester United underwhelming in their Premier League campaign so far.
United have collected seven points from a possible 18 in their 2024-25 Premier League season, with Ten Hag’s men managing only two league wins.
The Red Devils suffered a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham at Old Trafford in the Premier League last Sunday before resuming their Europa League campaign on Thursday.
United started off strong in their Europa League encounter against Porto and took a 2-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes, only for Ten Hag’s side to squander their lead.
The Red Devils were 3-2 down five minutes into the second half before Harry Maguire scored a second-half injury-time equaliser at the Estadio do Dragao.
Scholes on Ten Hag and Man Utd
Following their 3-3 draw against Porto in Portugal, Manchester United will resume their Premier League campaign on Sunday with their away trip to Aston Villa.
Erik ten Hag needs his United side to bounce back in the league amid mounting speculation over his long-term future at Old Trafford.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, Paul Scholes admitted that he was baffled by Ten Hag’s approach towards Marcus Rashford over one key decision.
Marcus Rashford’s form fell off a cliff last season and the 26-year-old United star has had a mixed start to the 2024-25 season under Red Devils manager Ten Hag.
The England international went his first three league matches without scoring this season before finding the back of the net in the 3-0 win over Southampton at the St Mary’s.
Rashford netted a brace and registered an assist in the third-round Carabao Cup tie against Barnsley at Old Trafford only three days after the Southampton match.
Despite scoring three times in two matches, Rashford was then dropped to the bench for the 0-0 Premier League draw against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Scholes was left dumbfounded by Ten Hag’s call to drop the England and United star for the Crystal Palace match after Rashford had started to build confidence again.
“I thought he had turned a corner. I thought it was a really strange decision to leave him out of the Palace game,” he said.
“When a lad has been struggling for confidence for such a long time and then he actually scores, two in one game and one in another, and then is just left out, when you think he’s got his spark back, then you have to question whether Marcus has been behaving properly or whether the manager has got a big decision wrong.
“Just when you think he’s back and firing again, his confidence looks low again and you’re back to square one.”
Ten Hag’s Rashford call vs Porto
Marcus Rashford made an impact in United’s Europa League clash on Thursday after scoring inside 10 minutes before setting up Rasmus Hojlund for his side’s second.
However, Ten Hag made the controversial call to withdraw Rashford after the break and replaced him with Alejandro Garnacho after United lost their 2-0 lead.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Ten Hag said: “We have to rotate. Garnacho, we didn’t start him. He had a great game, not only on Sunday, but I think in the whole season.
“We sub them [the players who went off] because on Sunday we have another hard game, a good game, so we need players to be available and be fit and be fresh.
“It’s a quick turnaround to Villa. They have a day longer [to recover] and we have an away game, so we want fresh players on the pitch.”
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