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Sunday’s disappointing loss against West Ham left Manchester United languishing in 14th position in the Premier League with the club failing to win 10 of the 14 games in all competitions this season.
That left INEOS with no choice but to sack Erik ten Hag on Monday with the new co-owners paying substantial compensation to the Dutchman.
While the former Ajax coach will point to the two trophies he won during his tenure as signs that the new management should have kept faith, the results this season were too bad to ignore.
Injuries and refereeing injustice also played a part but what concerned the new hierarchy the most was Ten Hag’s bizarre rotation policy, a lack of clear style of play and his reluctance to use Manuel Ugarte despite the new co-owners spending big to bring him in.
EtH’s relationship with senior stars
Despite two seasons of underperformance, quite a lot of players thanked the 54-year-old for his services including club skipper Bruno Fernandes and the young guns who improved under him — Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho.
While the academy graduates sizzled, plenty of big-name stars failed to hit the right notes under the Dutch tactician as seen from the exits of David de Gea and Jadon Sancho.
And according to The Daily Star, Ten Hag felt a few senior stars let him down due to their underperformance and that list includes Marcus Rashford, Casemiro and Antony.
“Ten Hag has spent more than £600m on new signings since taking charge, and failed to challenge for the title, despite winning two domestic cups.
“But Ten Hag believes he has been let down by a number of senior players during his time at United, including Marcus Rashford, Casemiro and Anthony.”
In fact, the last two were brought to the club by Ten Hag himself, in his first window in charge of the club, with United massively overpaying for both.
While the former Real Madrid star was a huge success in his debut season, Antony has been marked as a huge flop since his first campaign with the winger struggling to impress.
Big-name stars let EtH down
As for Rashford, the Mancunian was the highest scorer in Ten Hag’s first season but crashed and burned last season, with plenty of off-field controversies affecting his form.
While the England international is showing signs of improvement, it is clear that Casemiro and the former Ajax winger both look likely to leave at the end of this season.
Saudi sides are eyeing the midfielder while the Dutch giants could look to re-sign their star winger. United will be happy to let both go with current managerial favourite candidate Ruben Amorim likely to have his own plans of operating.
Even Rashford needs to improve a lot if he is to remain at his boyhood club. It is clear that apart from the aforementioned trio, quite a few United stars will be playing for the future if Amorim does arrive.