
Manchester United
Premier League • England
Marcus Rashford ‘unhappy’ at Man Utd as Shearer explains axing and reveals Ten Hag ‘anger’ at exit-linked star

Marcus Rashford and Erik ten Hag Manchester United.jpg
Alan Shearer is adamant that Erik ten Hag was never going to pick Marcus Rashford from the start against Chelsea, after explaining why the player is “really unhappy” with his current situation at Manchester United.
United returned to winning ways on Wednesday evening and closed within three points of the top four after a well-deserved 2-1 win over Chelsea at Old Trafford. Crisis, what crisis? However, the win was only their 11th win in 22 games this season, with the 10 defeats Manchester United have also suffered in that time ensuring the pressure is still very much on Ten Hag.
Their midweek success against Mauricio Pochettino’s side, however, sets the tone for what the club hopes will be a much better week. United were the dominant side from the first minute of the match and arguably should have won by a more comfortable margin than they did.
Nonetheless, the three points – courtesy of a double from Man of the Match, Scott McTominay – illustrated a United side, who despite some conspiracy theorists, are still very much playing for their manager and the shirt.
The victory, however, was, in the main, achieved without the services of Rashford. The forward has cut an extremely unhappy figure this season and has once again been linked with an exit away from the club, amid speculative reports Man Utd are considering a straight swap deal for a Barcelona star.
Rashford, of course, has always been quick to swat aside such talk, with his current deal still having over five years left to run.
However, there is no getting away from the fact that the 26-year-old has struggled badly to replicate his fantastic form of last season, where he scored 30 times in 56 games.
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Shearer claims Marcus Rashford is ‘really unhappy’ at Man Utd
This season paints a very different picture, with Rashford managing just two goals from 18 appearances heading into Wednesday’s clash at Old Trafford.
And after a hugely-lacklustre display at Newcastle on Saturday evening – in which Rashford was absolutely destroyed by Jamie Carragher and compared to a £57.6m flop – the forward was axed from the starting line-up for Wednesday’s line-up.
Shearer insists the axing of the player, with Antony and Alejandro Garnacho preferred in the wide attacking areas, comes as no surprise and claims Ten Hag is still clearly annoyed at the player for both his poor displays and downbeat body language.
“He looks like a really unhappy player right now and it’s probably for the best that Ten Hag has made the decision he has tonight,” he said on Prime Video.
“My question was whether or not he’d stick with him, but I looked at the manager on Saturday and he was so annoyed with what he hadn’t given then that there was no way he was being played tonight.
“I’m sure that if things aren’t going well tonight, fans will be cheering for him to come on because he’s from here, he knows the club so well and they might just need him but the attitude has to change.”
Ten Hag has an attitude problem to fix at Man Utd
Rashford did make an introduction as an 84th-minute substitute for Rasmus Hojlund, who himself went an 11th Premier League game without a goal.
Shearer suggested earlier in the week that Ten Hag has a big problem to solve with Rashford with the player not showing the necessary fight or desire to help United out of their current predicament.
Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast and in reflection of their 1-0 loss at Newcastle, Shearer hit out at United and a perceived lack of desire from a select band of players.
He said: “I thought they were a mess, I thought they were terrible. I thought their attitude was awful and it highlighted some of the really bad attitudes they clearly have.
“When it’s tough and when it’s hard, you see the players who want to play for you and you see the players who want to support you as a manager and as a fan. And I thought there were three or four players who were not prepared to roll their sleeves up and gave up far too easily and didn’t want to fight.”
Ten Hag, though, can at least raise a small smile after Wednesday’s win and knowing that those on duty did at least put in a shift for him.
Now the Dutchman will hope for more of the same from his players against Bournemouth on Saturday, and again in Tuesday’s must-win Champions League clash against Bayern Munich.
Whether Rashford is restored to the starting line-up for both or either of those games remains to be seen and much may well depend on the player’s attitude in training over the next few days.
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