ERIK TEN HAG hammered his Manchester United team at the start of pre-season with defeat in Norway.
Despite it being just a friendly in which he made 11 field changes at half-time, he said it “wasn’t good enough” as the Red Devils conceded a goal in stoppage time.
It was a weak squad, but big names like Marcus Rashford, Aaran Wan-Bissaka, Jonny Evans, Casemiro, Mason Mount participated in the first half.
And tough taskmaster Ten Hag, who remained United manager despite the ax threat, was not happy.
He fumed: “The performance is below standard.
“By far not good enough. It’s not the standard for top football.
“I know we can’t be fit at this stage and we’re facing an opponent with much higher fitness levels, we’re still Manchester United and the Manchester United players should play better.”
United lost to a stoppage-time goal from Noah Holm and a Rosenborg team, who, to be fair, are 15 games into the season.
But a penny for the thoughts of Rashford, who played the first half.
On the day England, struggling against the Three Lions, recovered from a heartbreaking defeat in the Euro final, here he was.
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The last time the competition reached this stage, Rashford was part of it, counting on taking the penalty in the shootout against Italy at Wembley, although he missed when England fell short.
He scored three goals in the last World Cup when Gareth Southgate took the team to the quarter-finals. He was also part of all of this.
Indeed, he has been part of history under Southgate from the start, including the World Cup run to the semi-finals in 2018.
You don’t win 60 international matches and score 17 goals without being part of it all.
Not now, when at 26 he should be in his prime.
In fact, not since last March and the 1-0 home defeat to Brazil.
Instead, he was here playing against a backdrop of near silence in a mind-numbing pre-season game in which goalkeeper Radek Vitek emerged as the best player of the match, which clearly didn’t impress the boss.
The performance was indicative of many from Rashford last season, even if it was his first in pre-season.
But he really needs to do something in the summer preparations for United, who head to the USA next week after a game against Rangers at Hampden next Saturday.
In 2022-23 he recorded a season-best 30 goals and then it all happened, as can happen so quickly in football if a young player loses focus as happened last season.
He fought with the coach and left the team.
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Nights off the field, along with on-field performance at odds with his previous campaign, suffered a decline last season with both club and country.
It was only an injury to Mason Mount that left him out as he struggled through games last season.
Perhaps the atmosphere and standard of this game helped bring it home, I dare say, even for these senior players, including Casemiro, who is no longer involved with Brazil and who played in the Copa América.
He was the target of a challenge from Tomas Nemcik, who should have been red-faced in the first half but is fine.
Lt Hag said: “There were a lot of bad tackles in the first half.”
He’s not happy anymore.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story