Erik ten Hag urged a “extremely motivated” Marcus Rashford to make use of his England disappointment as “gasoline” forward of this weekend’s FA Cup closing.
Rashford was omitted from Gareth Southgate’s provisional 33-man squad for the upcoming European Championship this week, following a disappointing season during which he has scored simply eight objectives.
The ahead struck 30 instances throughout the 2022-23 marketing campaign, however has struggled to construct on that momentum this time period.
Rashford will hope to characteristic at Wembley as United face rivals Manchester Metropolis in a repeat of final yr’s closing, needing to win to make sure they don’t miss out on European soccer for the primary time in 10 years.
And Ten Hag is backing the 26-year-old to reply to his setback in a optimistic method.
“He appears to be like good,” the United head coach stated. “A profession has ups and downs, and a down can even offer you gasoline and that’s what I see in coaching.
“So, he can be extremely motivated. He’s very proficient and already has an enormous profession, and I’m positive he’ll recover from this and make much more objectives.”
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Considered one of Rashford’s finer moments of the season got here in opposition to Metropolis when he opened the scoring with a shocking 25-yard strike in a 3-1 defeat on the Etihad in March.
Two months on – and on the conclusion of a troublesome season blighted by accidents to a number of key gamers – Ten Hag believes United are in a stronger place to compete with their rivals.
“On the Etihad, we had been excellent within the sport for 70 minutes, and had alternatives to go forward,” the Dutchman added.
“They may substitute, however we didn’t have the gamers on the bench. That may be a huge distinction. On Saturday, we may have a bench and may have a a lot stronger facet.”