Manchester United manager, Erik Ten Hag, has declined to comment on a recent statement by the club’s on-loan player, Eric Bailly.
Bailly who is currently playing for Marseille claimed a few days ago that the club loves to favour English players over foreign players.
“The club should avoid favouring English players and give everyone a chance,” Bailly, who was shipped out during the summer transfer window as part of a mass exodus orchestrated by Ten Hag, claimed.
“[The club should] encourage competition in the dressing room, not just look out for some.
“I’ve always had the feeling that the national player was prioritised. That doesn’t happen at Chelsea or other big Premier League clubs. Some people take it for granted that they are going to start, and that weakens the team. Luckily, Ten Hag has a lot of character and I hope he can change that dynamic.”
Asked to address the issue, Ten Hag said, “I cannot [comment]. I have nothing to say about that because it was last season. I wasn’t in charge so I don’t know the situation.”
Asked if how he manages to keep the players happy, he said, “When a team is acting well, when players are acting well, I think we have more than 11 starting XI players and then you stay in that’s clear. The team is improving, it’s getting better, but, on the other hand, for players who are not now in the team, we know they can, at any moment, they can come in and they will do the job. And they can maybe even do it better than the players who are in but you’ll never know. I know that you need more than 11 players to get successful and I know we have a really good bench in this moment and also, when they come on, they really contribute to the success we have now. That is also what we expect but I know also that the players on the bench, they will have their games as a starting-XI player.”
On Marcus Rashford, he said, “Once again, it is difficult for me to talk about the past. but what I see – I see a happy Marcus Rashford and I see some phases in his game that we could improve. And we worked really hard in the last two-and-a-half months with him on different aspects. He likes it and he wants to transfer it to the pitch, and that is what you see in this moment. It started with happiness. He is coming here every day, he really enjoys it, he’s really smiling. He has a really positive vibe and, if you put all of those things together with the way of play and you want to transfer and improve different aspects of your game and you are happy, you will have more contribution to the team, to the performance, to the result, and also to your development.”
