Erik ten Hag was delighted at this swaggering Manchester United victory but became the latest manager to express his unhappiness about the fixture calendar after Marcus Rashford was forced off towards the end of his side’s third game in six days.
United have already claimed the Carabao Cup and are in the FA Cup semi-finals and Europa League quarter-finals. With nine Premier League matches remaining, they could end the season having played a total of 65 games.
Rashford has scored 28 goals in 48 United appearances in all competitions so Ten Hag’s frustration spoke of alarm at the possibility of losing a key man in the campaign’s defining phase.
Last Sunday, United were at Newcastle in the 4.30pm game and hosted Brentford on Wednesday at 8pm before kicking off at 12.30pm on Saturday, the first and last times at the behest of television. Ten Hag said: “It doesn’t look well. We have to wait to see how bad or how good it is. That is due to the schedule. It can’t be that you play three games in six days. We have to protect our players. Everyone wants the best players on the pitch, everyone wants to see great entertaining football like today, but then you need your best players.
“Some things you can’t avoid but this was avoidable. Why was the Premier League giving us the late Sunday night game and the early Saturday game? All science and research tell you players need a certain time to recover. It is also part of the schedule that we are now finding ourselves in this situation and now we can only pray he is not dropping out [for long].”
Ten Hag said he had only felt comfortable after United found their second goal on 71 minutes, scored by Anthony Martial as he continued his return from a hip injury. He was asked why, then, Rashford was not removed at this juncture, his injury occurring on 79 minutes. “In that moment you want Anthony Martial, who is coming back and to bring him back with Rashford: when they are together we have two clinical players who can finish games and that is what we want in the final part of the season to be successful.”
United’s opener came courtesy of Scott McTominay drifting into the type of schemer’s area behind lines that is supposedly beyond a midfielder labelled as functional. But no. The Ten Hag way is to see potential everywhere, unmined gold from the boots of all of his charges. Jadon Sancho is another beneficiary of smart coaching. It was he who created McTominay’s first league goal of the campaign: pretty patterns were a United motif throughout and were present in the opener. After Rashford tried and failed to pull the trigger a crowd formed outside the left side of Everton’s area. From here, clever passes in tight spaces were deployed and when Sancho threaded a pass into McTominay, he rifled the ball into the back of Jordan Pickford’s net from a difficult angle.
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Everton’s keeper could do nothing about United’s second, either – Séamus Coleman the culpable one here. Harry Maguire rolled the ball left to Lisandro Martínez and the centre-back launched a 70-yard lob towards Rashford. Coleman allowed the ball to slide under his feet and the Rashford collected it before squaring to Martial who, after composing himself, blazed home.
The Frenchman being back and adding to his goal tally – it was a seventh in 17 outings in all competitions – was as welcome as what followed: Christian Eriksen coming on after more than two months out with injury, the Dane replacing Sancho, who had sparkled.
As United remained firmly in control, the sole sour note arrived as Rashford pulled up and was forced off – replaced by Wout Weghorst – with the England forward appearing to hold his groin before he headed straight down the tunnel.
Despite Ten Hag’s grumbles, he will take the overall state of affairs: with nine matches remaining of the chase for a Champions League berth they are in ripe form. “It’s game by game and we know what we are capable of and you see this team is still improving, today it was brilliant football, we created so many chances,” he said.
For Everton, though, there are eight games left to avoid the drop. Sean Dyche said: “The mood has been great. We have been doing well. We have to keep the mood high. We weren’t miles away. Too many stepped slightly off their performance levels.”
