Crystal Palace 0-0 Manchester United
SELHURST PARK — Marcus Rashford looked for a second like he was about to commit a real public relations error.
After the final whistle blew on a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace, second-half substitute Rashford shook hands with his opponents and headed for the sideline. Casemiro grabbed his arm and pointed to the away fans in the far corner of Selhurst Park, apparently worried Rashford was about to exit without acknowledging them.
The England forward gestured to say he was just getting some water before turning around to join his teammates in applauding the Manchester United faithful. But it wasn’t prolonged and Rashford was the first one back in the tunnel. His body language, imprecise as that science is, did not suggest a player happy with his lot, selected on the bench despite having scored three goals in the last week.
“It feels like something has gone untoward. I don’t know the details. But you don’t drop a player that has scored two in midweek and against Southampton,” said Jamie Redknapp on Sky Sports.
“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.”
Erik ten Hag was furious at the conjecture.
“There’s speculation. Some pundits that [are] crazy,” Ten Hag said, impressively up-to-date on the meta-discussion of a game that had finished less than an hour ago.
“I would almost say you are, as person, not okay when you bring such speculation, if you don’t know what’s [going] on.
“This is just rotation. We have many games to cover.”
But you can see why Redknapp, and whole lot of other people, might start wagging their tongues.
Just two days before the Palace game, Ten Hag had criticised Rashford’s approach to football.
“He has to set his life right, his training attitude right, his match attitude right,” he said.
“When he sets his professionalism he will perform because he is a class player.”
It was a backhanded compliment that seemed to betray Ten Hag’s true feelings, but on Saturday he was quick to defend his striker.
“I’m very happy with Marcus, with everything, with his defending part, offensive [part],” Ten Hag added.
“He’s scores in this moment. So he performs very good, and so nothing to do with it that he was on the bench, just rotation.”
If Ten Hag and Rashford have not fallen out, they need to do a better job of telling the story. Even Palace manager Oliver Glasner admitted he had expected Rashford, who was taken off on a hat-trick after 63 minutes in midweek, to start.
Of course, it would have been so much easier to do so had United secured all three points, as it seemed inevitable that they would after a first half when they had 13 attempts to Palace’s two and an xG of 1.58 to their opponent’s 0.22, hitting the crossbar twice and forcing four fine saves from their former goalkeeper Dean Henderson.
But Glasner’s two changes at halftime got them closer to United in midfield, and exposed their lack of mobility in the middle, where twice either side of the break Ebrechi Eze should have scored in almost identical fashion: United were found wanting at full-back, Palace got to the byline and pulled back to the late arriving Eze. To miss one chance was unfortunate, to miss both started to look like carelessness.
Manuel Ugarte getting up to speed should mean that United do not have to start 32-year-old Christian Eriksen three times in a week as one of the deeper-lying midfielders, although in possession the Dane gives the trio with Kobbie Mainoo and Bruno Fernandes a real verve.
“I saw more fluidity, more creativity, they were more incisive with their passing,” said former Brentford, QPR, Rangers and Nottingham Forest manager Mark Warburton on BBC commentary.
“That’s the best shape I’ve seen from Manchester United for a long while. The movement into midfield was very impressive. But the fact they couldn’t finish it off and get their reward will be frustrating.”
Former United defender Phil Jones was similarly unconcerned by his old team’s “unforced errors rather than structural” problems that have left them 11th in the Premier League after five games.
Ten Hag too is bullish.
“The performance is good, but score, we are not happy,” he said.
“We are disappointed with the score but I know one thing for sure: in football, it’s a long way to go, and when you play in the quality we now deliver, the points will come, the goals will come, so then the points will come.”
But at United, the scrutiny will keep coming too, especially if he cannot get Rashford, or any other striker, firing.
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