Former Manchester United player slates two surprising names following Fulham defeat

Former Manchester United keeper Ben Foster has slated Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford for their lack of effort during United’s 2-1 loss to Fulham.

The Premier League side showed little to appease fans, as the Red Devils were beaten at Old Trafford by a travelling Fulham side who were without key players in Raul Jimenez, Joao Palhinha, and Willian.

With United’s attackers failing to score, United’s only goal came from an unexpected source in Harry Maguire.

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But it was not only United’s frontline’s inability to score that Foster was quick to criticise, with the former Red Devils keeper aiming his analysis at how both Garnacho and Rashford ignored Erik ten Hag‘s instructions to press their opposition.

“If you are going to play that way [pressing football], and you put Garnacho and Rashford up there, [then] they have to do the job the manager says,” noted Foster to The United Stand. “If he says, ‘You need to press in these areas, and you do it really intensely,’ [then] That is their job for that day.

“You can’t just go, ‘Oh well, it’s Garnacho and Rashford, so we’ll let them off.’ No! That’s their job for the day and they don’t do it, they don’t want to do it, and you can’t trust them to do it.

“The second goal actually came from Fulham having a throw-in down in the bottom corner, and Garnacho switches off for a split-second. They manage to get the throw straight to the player, plays it back, kicks it up the field… goal. Simple as that.

“Hojlund will do that, he is a presser. He will work tirelessly, he will just give everything he’s got. So that [his absence] straight away sets United off on a back foot, because when Højlund’s playing, the United players know they can get up around it because they know that he is going to shut those little angles off and the ball’s not going to get played though into those midfield sections.

“But when you’ve got Rashford and Garnacho, it’s just like ‘Oh no, here we go.’ And, I can guarantee you the whole of the back four, the back six, would have been going ”Oh no, here we go,’ because they know straight away that ball is just going to get played through.

“So I think that straight away took the wind out of Man United’s sails, so it was almost a case of, ‘Well they’re not really the kind of strikers who are going to get hold of the ball, dribble past everyone and score us a goal. And they’re not going to press, so we’re just going to have to hope for the best today.'”