‘Disciplinary issue’: Lineker and Shearer suspect there may be more than what meets the eye RE Rashford’s omittance
Marcus Rashford’s omission from Manchester United’s starting XI on Saturday certainly raised the eyebrows of supporters and pundits.
Towards the back end of last season or the beginning of 2024/2025, it perhaps wouldn’t have, as the forward has endured a turbulent spell of struggling to find the back of the net – despite being trusted with consecutive starts.
However, he opened his account for the campaign last Saturday against Southampton with a sublime strike to put United two goals ahead. In the subsequent match, a midweek Carabao Cup tie versus Barnsley, Rashford recorded a brace and an assist in his 63 minutes on the turf, leading fans to assume his place in the starting 11 was secure for the foreseeable.
That was until Erik ten Hag named his selection to take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, though. He instead opted for a front three consisting of young wingers Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo, with Joshua Zirkzee leading the line. Rashford eventually entered the fray in the closing stages of the stalemate to make a 29-minute cameo.
As you’d expect, it did lead to speculation that something had gone on behind the scenes between the Englishman and Ten Hag. Personally, I believe it was simply a rotational/tactical decision.
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More than what meets the eye in Rashford saga, suggests pundits
Gary Lineker is of the former stance, though, and Ten Hag’s pre-Palace press conference comments – where he insisted the player had to lead a ‘disciplined life away from Carrington’ – have only fed into such rumours.
“I think the interesting story from that one is that he left Marcus Rashford out. Obviously, he scored the previous week, and [Ten Hag] talked about the tomato ketchup [analogy], once he goes and starts scoring,” Lineker told The Rest Is Football panel.
“Then he scores two in midweek, admittedly against lower league opposition – Barnsley wasn’t it? And then he gets left out. Now it looks like, reading between the lines, that it might be some disciplinary issue because he kind of mooted that in his press conference, [saying] that Marcus has got to be professional.”
“Why else would you leave him out?” Alan Shearer questioned. “When things have been criticised, and I was one of them, for his performances. But then, you get your goal last weekend, you get another couple in the midweek. Why would you actually even contemplate leaving him out? So my guess is – and it is a guess – that it has to be something different.”
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