Marcus Rashford was absent from the squad when Manchester United played Newport County in the FA Cup. He had reportedly said he was ill and missed training on Friday, however he was seen in Northern Ireland partying in the days leading up to the game. Rashford has since ‘taken responsibility for his actions’.
A Manchester United statement read: “This has been dealt with as an internal disciplinary matter, which is now closed.”
The England forward has four goals and three assists so far this season, as Manchester United sit eighth in the Premier League. As Rashford has got older, a lot more responsibility has been put on his shoulders. He has been an integral part of the first team since 2016 when he first broke through.
Let’s take a look at Rashford’s statistics since breaking into the Manchester United first team
| Season | Appearances (All Comps) | Goals | Assists |
| 22/23 | 56 | 30 | 11 |
| 21/22 | 32 | 5 | 2 |
| 20/21 | 57 | 21 | 15 |
| 19/20 | 44 | 22 | 12 |
| 18/19 | 47 | 13 | 10 |
| 17/18 | 52 | 13 | 9 |
| 16/17 | 53 | 11 | 7 |
| 15/16 | 18 | 8 | 2 |
Rashford was producing good numbers on a consistent basis, with his goals and assists slowly improving year on year. 21/22 was a poor year for Rashford however he was out on three separate occasions through injury. He bounced back, and last season had his best goalscoring season for the club. It was clear to see that in 22/23, Rashford was at the top of his game, which must make his off the field antics even more frustrating for ten Hag.
Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville spoke with BBC Breakfast about Rashford’s situation.
“I would say go out and have your moment where you relax with your friends but your timing has to be right,” said Neville.
“Marcus himself knows, he’s an experienced player now. We’re not talking about a young lad but he’s done it a couple of times in the past few months.
“I’ve always seen Marcus has being really responsible, a good professional and someone who works hard every single day. I know he’s going through a dip in form at this moment in time but it’s happened twice and it can sometimes become your personality if you’re not careful.
“He just needs to relax, calm down, choose when to go out and get back to playing football at the levels we know he can.”
This is not the first time Rashford has had to be disciplined this season. He was dropped from the starting line-up for their Carabao Cup fourth-round defeat by Newcastle in November as a disciplinary measure.
On that occasion, Ten Hag was unhappy at him being seen out celebrating his birthday in Manchester just hours after being involved in their 3-0 defeat by Manchester City.
This is an important season for Rashford given the European Champions are at the end of the season. Gareth Southgate is prone to drop players when they have had discipline issues, but only usually if the player is in the England camp at the time. Southgate will still see Rashford as a key asset, but the United man needs to get his focus back onto football.
Erik ten Hag refused to share details about Rashford in his post-match press conference after the 4-2 win at Newport, but after the issue was resolved on Monday, it seems as if Rashford could feature in United’s Premier League clash with Wolves.
Off the field issues have become a bit of a theme under the stewardship of ten Hag. Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho, Anthony and Rashford have all had issues surrounding them in the last couple of years. So is this a player issue, a ten Hag issue or a Manchester United issue?
Another former United player Rio Ferdinand spoke on the Rashford situation, alongside the other players who have acted out under ten Hag.
“The way the manager responded to the question makes me think he’s not happy with what’s happened. There’s something wrong. The club’s all over the place, players in his position have been hammered by the club,” Ferdinand told the Vibe with Five podcast.
“One’s gone out on loan to Dortmund now, one’s not at the club anymore. There’s a lot of noise around the club, you’re one of the experienced players, keep that noise down. That’s your duty.
“Like it or not, you’re one of the leaders now. I think you have to be aware enough that when you’re not doing well as a club, as a team, and you’re not hitting the standards personally, you’ve got to be aware man.
“Right now, Marcus should be the guy that’s leading that team. You have to have the awareness. It’s not only your manager that knows things, it’s the whole world so you have to be more careful.”
Rather than exile Rashford, Ten Hag insisted the incident is an “internal matter” and that he will “deal with it”. And Ferdinand believes the United boss is right to move forward with a different approach compared to his bust-up with Sancho.
“You can’t treat two people exactly the same, because you don’t know what incidents have happened behind the scenes. We’ve seen he’s called out Sancho, he might have done 10 things that we don’t know about,” Ferdinand added.
“Rashford might have done three. So are you saying still that he has to go exactly the same, call him out publicly in the way he did with Sancho? He’s going to handle it accordingly but I don’t think you can go with a blanket approach.”
Rashford’s football needs to take priority, he has the luxury of playing for his boy-hood club, working his way up through the youth ranks. If the issue has been dealt with, ten Hag and Rashford can put it behind them and focus on the rest of the season.
