Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer continue false Man United narrative, Erik ten Hag will be fuming

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer have continued a false narrative surrounding Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford that will leave Erik ten Hag fuming.

The Reds put in one of their most commanding performances of the season at Crystal Palace on Saturday evening.

Despite dominating the match and creating plenty of chances, Erik ten Hag’s side couldn’t find the back of the net and had to settle for a draw.

This result leaves United with just seven points from their first five Premier League games—an underwhelming start, despite some positive displays.

Marcus Rashford was surprisingly dropped to the bench after scoring three goals in his last two matches. However, Alejandro Garnacho, who has also been in excellent form, took his place.

Ten Hag emphasised before the game that the change was part of squad rotation and also called out claims from Jamie Redknapp after the game, with the former Liverpool pundit suggesting that there were problems behind-the-scenes.

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer continue Rashford discussion

Shockingly, despite the manager calling out Redknapp for his comments about Rashford, two more former professionals continued the discussion this week.

Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer spoke about the United draw on their podcast, The Rest Is Football, and both came to the conclusion that there would be no other reason to drop Rashford other than disciplinary issues.

The two pundits, who cited Ten Hag’s pre-game press conference, failed to realise that Ten Hag had already put this rumour to bed.

“I think the interesting story from that one is that he left Marcus Rashford out. Obviously, he scored the previous week, and [Ten Hag] talked about the tomato ketchup [analogy], once it goes and he starts scoring,” Lineker began.

“Then he scores two in midweek, admittedly against lower league opposition – Barnsley wasn’t it? And then he gets left out. Now it looks like, reading between the lines, that it might be some disciplinary issue because he kind of mooted that in his press conference, [saying] that Marcus has got to be professional.”

“Why else would you leave him out?” Alan Shearer added. “When things have been criticised, and I was one of them, for his performances.

“But then, you get your goal last weekend, you get another couple in the midweek. Why would you actually even contemplate leaving him out? So my guess is – and it is a guess – that it has to be something different.”

Ten Hag will be left fuming – and so should fans

Ten Hag already reacted to similar comments from Redknapp in a fierce style but Lineker and Shearer seemingly failed to do any sort of research surrounding the topic.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have tried to continue this narrative that Rashford is being disciplined for poor behaviour behind-the-scenes.

This is, quite frankly, disgraceful behaviour from the former Premier League pairing. It is so easy for false narratives to run in football, especially when associated with Manchester United, and they are leading the charge despite Ten Hag trying to shut down those rumours.

It seems that United are the only team not allowed to rotate. It’s easy to forget that Garnacho, the man who came in for Rashford, also scored against Southampton and Barnsley while also having seven direct goal contributions so far this term.

Questioning the decision for Ten Hag to take Rashford out of the team is entirely fair and a topic that Shearer and Lineker should have focused on, rather than gossiping about Rashford’s activity behind-the-scenes.

As mentioned, as a footballer, it is easy to get a tag from the media. After some positive sparks from Rashford, it is largely disappointing to see two former English strikers trying to continue this false narrative.

Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is released every Thursday at 6 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.