Alan Shearer returns fire in war of words with Erik ten Hag over Man Utd star

Striker-turned-pundit Alan Shearer has responded to Erik ten Hag labelling his criticism of Marcus Rashford as stupid.

Shearer says that he understood the instinct of Ten Hag to defend his player but stood by his criticism of Rashford.

Rashford played the full 90 minutes of Man Utd‘s loss to Liverpool over the weekend after taking him off in previous fixtures appeared to draw attention to the poor performance of the attacker.

“He’s had two games this season Marcus Rashford and he’s not had one shot at goal,” Shearer had said in assessment of the forward’s efforts this term after their loss to Brighton.

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“Fifty-seven goals they scored last season. That was the worst in the top half. Ruud van Nistelrooy has been brought into there. He’s going to have to work his magic somehow.”

Plenty of people are already predicting United to miss out on a top-four finish in the Premier League, according to Jessica Whitehouse, with most bookies now listing them as eighth favourites to secure a Champions League spot. And many supporters feel particularly aggrieved with Rashford’s contributons.

Yet Ten Hag had insisted that he was happy with how Rashford was training and had every reason to have faith in his player.

“Everyone gets criticism, it doesn’t matter what we are doing, if we are winning or if we are losing. If I take a player off, the conclusion is I was not happy with him,” Ten Hag said in a press conference.

“But I was very happy with Rashy in pre-season, against Fulham and also against Brighton. I didn’t take him off because his performances or level were not right no, we had to rotate because we have good players on the bench who bring new energy.

“There will be rotation. Then there is the conclusion the player is not performing. It can be sometimes but definitely it wasn’t in this case. In this case, it was stupid analysis from the pundit.”

Alan Shearer stands by Marcus Rashford remarks

Shearer doesn’t feel that anything he said about the team or Rashford was over the line in any way.

“I was quite content and happy with what I said about Man United and Marcus Rashford before the game,” Shearer said.

“I totally get Erik ten Hag’s reaction because the question was put to him in his press conference about one of his players, and he’s got no other option than to protect his player. I totally understood that. However, I would stand by everything I said, and nothing changed for me from what I saw at the weekend.

“I don’t see much change in Man United in their three league games so far to what we saw last year, when they finished eighth. They’re still wide open and still struggle in forward positions so I stand by what I said.”