Marcus Rashford had no problem with being benched by Erik ten Hag

Marcus Rashford had no problem with being benched by Erik ten Hag

Marcus Rashford has openly admitted that he had no objections to Erik ten Hag's decision to bench him for being late to a team meeting in December.

Despite Rashford's impressive performance, where he scored a goal and provided an assist in Manchester United's 3-1 victory against Nottingham Forest just days before, he found himself named on the bench for the game against Wolves.

This decision was made public after it was revealed that he had been late to a team meeting.

Rashford has since revealed that he was only a few seconds late, but Erik ten Hag's commitment to high standards meant that he could not avoid facing consequences for his tardiness.

"I learnt from pre-season because a few of the lads had been late and it was important for him to implement those rules in that situation," Rashford told The Overlap.

"I wasn't even late that much but it was probably around 45 seconds or a minute. I already knew what was going to happen and I wasn't going to argue about it.

"We had a game to try to win and Wolves away for us in the last few years hasn't been easy."

Despite starting the game on the bench, Rashford was brought on at halftime and ultimately scored the winning goal. This marked the beginning of a remarkable run of form for the England international.

Throughout the season, Erik ten Hag's high standards were evident as he continuously scrutinised any subpar moments from Manchester United, especially after their stunning 7-0 loss to rivals Liverpool.

Rashford acknowledged that he has enjoyed working under the Dutchman's demanding but rewarding coaching style.

"When he [Ten Hag] came in, I didn't hear him speaking about getting top four once," Rashford continued.

"He just wanted to win trophies and if you've got that mentality, it doesn't matter what we're playing in, we want to win everything. The players gave everything they could [last season]. We let ourselves down in the Europa League.

"I think there was a period where we weren't defending as well and we weren't scoring as many goals, so that's something he'll want to correct. We'd always bounce back from them [big defeats].

"There's no lower point than going to rival teams and conceding lots of goals. After the match, we'd still do the game analysis and he'd watch it and dissect it for us. His understanding of players is very high.

"It's not easy to recover, but after a bad result, he'd give us confidence again. In the end, we fell short in the league and I think we could have put more pressure on Arsenal and City, which was disappointing."

 

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