Former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves believes Marcus Rashford was “fuming” after being left out of the starting line-up for United’s 3-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening.
Following last Sunday’s heavy 5-0 defeat to Liverpool at Old Trafford, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made two changes to his starting line-up — with experienced striker Edinson Cavani and the fit-again Raphael Varane coming into the side.
Their returns meant United academy graduates Mason Greenwood and Rashford were dropped to the bench amid the change to a 3-5-2 system.
Greenwood wasn’t called upon by Solskjaer, but Rashford came on to replace Cristiano Ronaldo with just under 20 minutes remaining and netted his third goal in four games in all competitions since returning from a lengthy injury lay-off.
Although Rashford will have been pleased to have been summoned off the bench to score, former United man Hargreaves believes he could sense a feeling of frustration from the former’s celebration that he had been dropped from the starting line-up.
“I think you could see that in his celebration, he was fuming,” Hargreaves told Premier League Productions. “But when two legends of the game are playing ahead of you it’s hard to complain in a sense.
“He’s never going to drop Ronaldo, he needed somebody else in there and Cavani was fabulous last season. He probably deserved to start sooner.
“Having Rashford and Greenwood to come off the bench, as much as it will hurt them, maybe right now for the balance of the team, they looked good today and Rashford will get goals coming off the bench, definitely.”
Although United were up against a lifeless and flat Spurs side — who did little to threaten Solskjaer’s troops — United’s response was an encouraging one. Time will now tell whether or not it will be a false dawn, or a fresh start.
Hargreaves believes the victory in north London was a “big step forward” for his old club.
He added: “I think it has to be considering the amount of goals they’ve conceded, it shored them up defensively.
“But the big question is they’ve got Manchester City at OId Trafford on the weekend. You’re not going to have much of the ball and you’re going to be quite deep. They defend with seven then Bruno [Fernandes], Cavani and Ronaldo.
“Is that going to work against City? We’ll see. But I think today was a big step forward.”
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