Erik ten Hag recently hit out at the fixture schedule following Marcus Rashford’s early withdrawal in the 2-0 win over Everton last weekend, with the 25-year-old seemingly sustaining a groin injury.
Speaking after that game, Ten Hag explained why he was annoyed by the decision to make United play the early kick-off on Saturday after playing on Wednesday evening that same week.
The Dutchman argued that the intense fixture schedule, which has been compounded by United’s passage into the latter phases of three cup competitions, had a part to play in Rashford sustaining the injury.
Now, in a rather remarkable twist to this story, Palmeiras manager Abel Ferreira has hit out at Ten Hag for complaining over the fixture schedule, telling him to ‘shut up’.
“Football here has fantastic things… But there are others that are inhuman,” Ferreira is quoted as saying by ESPN Brasil, via Sport Witness.
“Nine games in one month! The Manchester United coach complained the other day that Rashford was injured due to the sequence of games he has.
“I’d like to ask him or tell him: ‘In these next two months, I’m going to have nine games a month…’ Shut up, because you don’t know what you say.”
SN’s verdict…
Ferreira is evidently aggrieved by Ten Hag’s fixture admission and Palmeira’s tally of nine games is worse than whatever Ten Hag is facing, having already played more games than any other club in the top five European leagues.
The missing detail in Ferreira’s statement is that United, just like Palmeiras, also have nine games to play in April in a ruthless month of fixtures.
It’s not easy, by any means, for a team to play nine games in one month but Ferreira’s attack on Ten Hag was unnecessary and executed with little to no research.
It is two much for any team to play that many games in a month it should be 1 a week regardless ov competition ???