MANCHESTER United manager Erik ten Hag has revealed that his top scorer this season, Marcus Rashford, will miss ‘a few games’ due to injury but will be back before the end of the season.
Rashford has scored 28 goals across all competitions this season, his most prolific campaign ever, but he limped out of Saturday’s 2-0 Premier League win over Everton at Old Trafford.
The England forward will miss tomorrow’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg against Sevilla, but Ten Hag is optimistic about his time out.
“It’s a few games, that’s the statement. I can’t give more details because we don’t know. We have to see how it develops,” Ten Hag said today during his pre-match press conference.
“It’s a setback and he’s disappointed, but he’s not totally broken because he knows he will return quickly. He is optimistic, he will start straight on with his recovery and his rehab, so he will get back soon.”
Fortunately for Ten Hag, another forward Anthony Martial has returned from an injury lay-off and scored in the win over Everton after two months out.
The Frenchman has not started since his return, coming off the bench in his three appearances.
Ten Hag feels the 27-year-old is now fit enough to start as United battle on three fronts: the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League.
“I think he [Martial] is ready to start, but as I said, the front line did very well against Brentford and we picked the same against Everton,” the former Ajax manager explained.
“When he’s in the team, we play our best football and we have our best results as a team. I defend him because I point to the stats and see how he contributes.”
The Red Devils boss added that his plan is to make his side play total football where all the players work for each other.
“We want to play dynamically and surprise opponents. Make it difficult to read our game. We defend with 11 and attack with 11. So we work on that every day and every game – we have to improve every game,” he stressed.
“I’m happy with how my team is defending, we defend with 11 and we have a great goalie who gives us so many clean sheets.”
