Erik ten Hag says Anthony Martial was “begging” to play against Manchester City and that his departure at half-time was just a precaution.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference before tomorrow’s match with Crystal Palace, the coach said:
“He [Martial] begged to start [against Man City] and I knew that the start was very important in this game. He is especially good at pressing, a very important element of our pressing – he did it very well before the break.
“I hope to avoid his injury, but he complained, and that’s why he didn’t train this week, we decided, and he also decided [that he was fit enough to start].
“But you also saw that he is not able to give 100%, and this is what you need. Also, to avoid injury, we took it off. But it also affected our game, negatively affected after the break.”
The manager also admitted that his United team had been having fun after the victory over City, but now they have calmed down to focus on tomorrow’s decisive game.
“If you can’t celebrate, you’re killing energy,” he said. “But after that we had to calm down after 24 hours and move on to the next game.”
When asked if Wootworth would make his debut in the game, Ten Hag modestly said, “Oh, I need to think about everything, so calm down in this [City] game first, we have to draw the right conclusions, and then we will draw clear conclusions.” make plans.”
He was also asked to explain the choice of Bruno Fernandes on the right flank.
“I think he played the role really brilliantly, both on the right and on the left. I think the rest of the team adapted well to the situation and I think we had really good breaks when we found a free man,” he said.
“Bruno was [] an important factor in this role, and I think he was also important to the press. I didn’t know he was the Best Player of the match [Sky], but he was definitely my Best Player of the match, Bruno Fernandes.”
Tomorrow at 20:00 United Face Palace in Selhurst Park.
