Erik ten Hag furiously hits back at Jamie Redknapp over 'crazy' Marcus Rashford claim
Erik ten Hag was annoyed by Jamie Redknapp's suggestion that a falling out between the Manchester United manager and Marcus Rashford was behind his benching at Crystal Palace
Erik ten Hag has hit out at Jamie Redknapp for suggesting that something "untoward" had gone on between the Manchester United manager and Marcus Rashford.
Rashford was left on the bench for United's Premier League match against Crystal Palace on Saturday evening, despite scoring three goals in his last two games against Southampton and Barnsley. Ten Hag decided to pick Alejandro Garnacho to start on the left wing and claimed the decision was simply down to rotation and keeping his players fresh.
But in his punditry role for Sky Sports, former Liverpool midfielder Redknapp cast doubt on that reason. "It feels like something has gone untoward," he said. "I don't know the details. But you don't drop a player that has scored two in midweek and against Southampton.
"I'd be nervous to say he is back but he is showing signs of the Rashford from two years ago. It feels like something's happened maybe this week, I don't know the manager's frustration. It is unusual for a manager to out players for their lifestyle."
READ MORE: Man Utd left to rue missed chances as Crystal Palace gamble backfires - 5 talking pointsREAD MORE: Sky Sports fans can save £216 on their bill, here's three other reasons you'll want to pick itGarnacho failed to take his chances as United were frustrated in a 0-0 draw at Palace as Rashford was summoned from the bench in the 61st minute. Ten Hag had clearly been informed of Redknapp's words before entering his press conference - and he was keen to rubbish the rumours.
Asked why he left Rashford on the bench, Ten Hag replied: "I heard already speculation from some pundits - that's crazy. I would almost say as a person you are not OK when you bring such speculation if you don't know what's up. This is just rotation.
"And we have many games to cover and we can only start 11 players, but we have to give all the players - if they perform - the chances and finally, of course, we will find out the players who perform better and they will play more.
"But this, it had nothing to do [with this]... I'm very happy with Marcus, with everything - defending, offensive, he scores in this moment and performs very good. So it was nothing to do with why he was on the bench, just rotation."
When pressed, he added: "I have to say Amad is playing very good, Garnacho almost all the games so far, maybe apart from Liverpool, he has end product, so also we have to play them as well."
United were much the better side in the first half, but Dean Henderson kept Palace in the match with impressive saves from Garnacho, Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez. But the away side should have taken the lead when Garnacho rattled the crossbar when clean through and Bruno Fernandes repeated the trick from the rebound.
Palace were much improved after the break and should have scored when substitute Ismaila Sarr set up Eberechi Eze, only for the England star to put his effort wide from a cut-back. Andre Onana then made a stunning double save to keep out Eddie Nketiah and Sarr in quick succession.
“Football sometimes, you can’t control everything,” Onana told Sky Sports. “We were coming in, we had more chances and I had faith always in my guys. Today, we hit the crossbar twice and hopefully in the coming games, we will score a lot.
"I think we were better than them, I think we were way better than them. We had more chances than them. We had the best chances during the game. Of course, they are a very good team, but we were way better than them."
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