‘We have to be consistent’ - Erik ten Hag’s response after Marcus Rashford dropped in Man Utd win

Erik ten Hag has said players have to ‘match the standards and rules’ following the decision to discipline Marcus Rashford in Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

The attacker was dropped to the bench for the trip to Molineux but responded in the perfect way, as he came on in the second half and scored the only goal of the game. Ten Hag said prior to the match that the decision to drop Rashford was due to an ‘internal disciplinary’ issue, something the England international shed more light on after the game.

“I was late for a meeting. I slept in, overslept. It can happen,” Rashford told BT Sport. “It’s the team rules and it’s a mistake that can happen.

“I’m disappointed not to start but I understand the decision and am happy we managed to win the game anyway. I think we can draw a line under it and move on.”

Speaking later, Ten Hag said consistency was needed in addressing the issue, after Alejandro Garnacho was disciplined for arriving late to a team meeting during pre-season.

“Everyone has to match the standards and the rules and we have to be consistent, otherwise you can’t be successful. I think he gave the right answer,” explained the United manager in his post-match press conference.

“We are a team that are hard to beat and that’s because we are attacking with 11 and defending with 11. Everyone is matching the rules in defending, that’s why it’s so difficult to score against us.

“If you don’t do that anymore you get punished. If you are out of the pitch, when you are missing standards and rules, that influences on the pitch.”

Asked if he always planned to bring Rashford off the bench at half-time, Ten Hag responded: “No, and I was not satisfied with the performance in the first half. We had our chances to score goals.

“We are creating them and I think we need to be more clinical in front of goal. We know Rashy can be clinical in front of goal and that’s what he did when he came on.”