Marcus Rashford has been a long way from his best form this season (Picture: Getty Images)
Erik ten Hag believes his team were fatigued during their below-par performance against Newcastle at the weekend, not that there was a lack of effort from any of his players.
The Red Devils turned in a shabby display in the 1-0 loss at St James’ Park, with the likes of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial coming in for the most criticism for a perceived lack of commitment to the cause.
Both forwards have been in dreadful form this season, scoring just three Premier League goals between them, but it is their lack of running that is bothering fans as much as their lack of goals.
On whether his team had lacked effort against the Magpies, Ten Hag told a press conference on Tuesday: ‘We are not robots, if you play three games in six days, tough games and by the end the fatigue can be an issue, never an excuse but it is there but against Galatasaray against Everton we played very good, against Newcastle we were not happy with our performance,
‘We are the first to say, the players are the first, they are so self critical.’
The loss at Newcastle was the Red Devils’ third game in seven days after a victory at Everton and draw in Istanbul, but Newcastle are also in the Champions League and dealing with a similarly busy schedule.
Rashford was taken off during the loss at Newcastle after another poor performance (Picture: Getty Images)
Asked specifically about the struggling Rashford, Ten Hag did not give a specific response, but did admit that his team was not up to scratch at Newcastle.
‘Everyone is disappointed,’ he said. ‘We saw Galatasaray, the performance and result in Newcastle, we are not the only team to lose there, they win all the games except for Liverpool but we want to win there and we did everything in our power but definitely our performance wasn’t good enough.’
Manchester United host Chelsea on Wednesday night as the hectic period continues with a visit of Bournemouth on Saturday and Bayern Munich next Tuesday to follow.
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