Erik ten Hag unhappy with ‘crazy’ Jamie Redknapp claim after Manchester United draw vs Crystal Palace

Erik ten Hag has hit out at Jamie Redknapp after the Sky Sports pundit suggested that Marcus Rashford had been dropped for Manchester United’s draw with Crystal Palace for ‘something untoward’ behind the scenes.

United earned a point at Selhurst Park with both Andre Onana and Dean Henderson producing excellent saves.

Rashford, meanwhile, was named Player of the Match for his display in United’s 7-0 win over Barnsley in the Carabao Cup earlier this week but was only named as a substitute for the trip to Palace.

Alejandro Garnacho was handed only his second Premier League start of the season and Redknapp indicated before kick-off that Rashford may have unset Ten Hag.

‘It feels like something has gone untoward. You don’t drop a player that’s scored two in midweek and Southampton,’ Redknapp told Sky Sports before the game.

‘I’d be nervous to say he’s back but he’s certainly showing signs of the energy a few years ago.

‘It feels something has happened this week, the manager’s frustration.

‘It’s unusual for a manager to come out and out a player by talking about their lifestyle.

‘Something over the last year hasn’t been right with Rashford. If you want to live right and play right you’ve got to be at it all the time.

‘There’s no doubting his talent but when the manager talks about not being professional, you can’t have that, it’s not acceptable.

‘There’s obviously something that’s happened, but for Rashford to have that labelled against him is not ideal either.’

When asked about Redknapp’s comments after United’s draw with Palace, Ten Hag replied: ‘Yeah, I heard already the speculation, some pundits… that is crazy,

‘Then I would almost say as a person you are 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 and we have more than 11 starting players but we have to give all the players, if they perform, we will give them chances.

‘Finally we will find out, of course, the players who perform better will play more.

‘But this had nothing to do, I’m very happy with Marcus, with everything, with his defending part, offensively, he scores in this moment, he performs very good. Nothing to do with [speculation], just rotation.’

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