Manchester United legends Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand have issued a reaction to Erik ten Hag’s team selection.
On Sunday afternoon, United travelled to Villa Park to take on Unai Emery’s highflying team.
Ahead of the match, the future of Ten Hag was one of the main talking points after yet another poor start to the campaign.
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The Dutchman then made two huge calls as he decided to start Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans ahead of Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez.
Reacting to Ten Hag's team sheet, Neville said: “At one point I thought Gary and Phil Neville might be the full-backs!
“If you had said to me five or six weeks ago that you would end up with Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire, I would have said there must be four injuries to the others.”
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He added: “But the fact is De Ligt and Martinez have been dumped to the bench. You can't really argue with the decision from a footballing perspective. Watching the goals they conceded in Porto, they were horrific.
“But optically, looking from the point of view of the plan... The plan this season was for Erik ten Hag to establish his style of play, shift them up the pitch and make them more aggressive.
“It's like throwing the baby out with the bath water. It's like when a manager is struggling at the end of his tenure, when they throw the young players in and they pick the ones they can trust. So, they have got results when they have needed them under Ten Hag, so we'll see what happens.”
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Explaining his decisions, Ten Hag said: “Rotation. We have so many games to cover so we have to bring them all in. You look at the opponent and then you make a choice. There is always pressure.”
However, Ferdinand doesn’t seem convinced by the United boss’ explanation, he wrote on social media: “”rotation””.
Topics: Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United, Erik Ten Hag, Football
Marcus Chan