Ralf Rangnick puts Marcus Rashford in his place

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Ralf Rangnick has seen enough and he’s clearly getting fed up with the way players at Manchester United leak through the media.

Little over 12 hours after the defeat to City, Fabrizio Romano reported Marcus Rashford was unhappy at his lack of game time and could look to leave the club.

Rashford has started just two of 11 games, and the key point here, is that when he has played, he has been downright terrible.

The United forward is in no position to make demands, and interim boss Ralf Rangick has shut the situation down.

In frank, blunt comments, reported by BBC Sport, Rangnick has told him he is free to leave if he desires.

Rangnick said: “He didn’t say anything to me. He said to me that he’s still happy and that he wants to perform on a high level here for the club. He didn’t mention a thing about not being happy here.

“”It doesn’t many sense to put any energy into that. I don’t think this is an issue and he never said anything about that when we spoke.

“The window is closed right now. Even in case he and his agents or his family think about going to another club, well he can do that but in the summer.”

To be clear, relations between Rangnick and Rashford are still good and he will be in the matchday squad against Tottenham on Saturday.

But Rangnick has been crystal clear, he does not want players at Manchester United long term who do not want to be here. He has made this clear with previous comments on Paul Pogba.

Rangnick will move upstairs to a consultancy role at the end of the season to support the incoming boss.

Rashford has to knuckle down and concentrate on his football right now, that is the message. When the new manager is hired, player contracts will be looked at again.

The forward has to show over the next couple of months that he should be in the next boss’ plans.

Rangnick will expect a positive attitude and has told him to shut out distractions.

A new approach

The comments from Rangnick are somewhat unthinkable in comparison to his predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Solskjaer would have molly-coddled Rashford, possibly denied the story entirely, while for all Jose Mourinho’s bravado, he probably would not have called the forward out in this way either.

United fans have grown more and more fed up with the player power Mourinho did try to stop, since his sacking in 2018. For all Mourinho’s faults, he was certainly onto something with his criticism of the players, he just didn’t get to go far enough.

Rangnick’s approach is different, his comments are not intended in a malicious way to cause conflict, they are very simple matter of fact conclusions, with the benefit of the club placed ahead of the desire of the player.

He probably wants to go even further and is being as diplomatic as he can. He has likely seen enough rubbish from United’s players to last him a lifetime already, and that’s just off the pitch.

This is what supporters want to see, having grown tired of players getting their way. Rangnick’s stance is balanced, well-intentioned, and fair, and his no nonsense approach is a breath of fresh air. The onus is now on Rashford to o his talking on the pitch, and not let anybody in his camp do it via the media for him, and the same goes for other players.