Jenas explains what he didn’t like from ‘shocking’ Man Utd flop during drab Newcastle defeat

Jason Soutar
Manchester United winger Marcus Rashford has been criticised by Jermaine Jenas.
Marcus Rashford has been criticised by Jermaine Jenas.

Jermaine Jenas has slammed Marcus Rashford after a “shocking” performance for Manchester United during their 1-0 defeat at Newcastle United.

The Red Devils were second best throughout on Saturday evening as Anthony Gordon’s second-half goal gave Eddie Howe’s side all three points in a crucial Premier League clash.

The result continues a worrying trend for Manchester United, who have only won one out of their five matches against teams in the top half of the table this season.

Last term, Erik ten Hag’s men lost as many as they won (eight) against top-half sides and had a goal difference of -11.

Ten Hag has not been helped by the performances of Rashford this term, though.

The England international has only scored twice all season, netting his first goal since August last week against Everton, confidently converting from the penalty spot.

It was a difficult evening for Rashford at St James’ Park. As per WhoScored, he earned a 5.97 match rating, had zero shots, completed one dribble and recorded no defensive statistics before being substituted in the 61st minute.

After the match, Rashford was heavily criticised by former Newcastle midfielder Jenas, who is not a fan of the 26-year-old’s body language on the pitch.

MAILBOX: Premier League f*cked without Super League judases as Onana leads Man Utd ‘crisis’ narrative

“I think it was poor, I think his body language was shocking throughout the game, I really do,” he told TNT Sports. “There have been too many moments like this and throwing his arms about.

“I think he is sending a message to his manager almost like ‘I don’t want to play out here’. He is looking at [Alejandro] Garnacho on the left, and it’s criminal putting your team under that type of pressure by not doing your duties as a wide man and tracking back.

“It’s clear as well, [Tino] Livramento knows that he does not want to go with him. He’s never there and it’s time and time again. He has no interest in tracking him back and [Harry] Maguire and [Luke] Shaw are constantly coming to the rescue due to the ineptitude of the wide players and it’s not just them by the way.

“Fabian Schar is running past [Anthony] Martial. [Kieran] Trippier is running past Garnacho – all over the park they are second best and Newcastle were just not able to capitalise.”

Jenas clearly felt United’s forward players lacked effort defensively and Harry Maguire has urged his teammates to be more aggressive.

Maguire told the club’s official website: “We know we’ve got to do better, we’ve got to play better, the team’s got to perform better.

“We’ve got to play with a lot more intensity and tempo. We’ve got to win more duels – I feel that in the first half, we lost far too many duels. Every 50-50, we got beat in.

“We’ve got to be aggressive, we’ve got to play on the front foot, we’ve got to play at a big tempo and we just didn’t do that well enough tonight.”

READ MORE: Premier League Christmas fixtures: Klopp can’t complain as Chelsea, Wolves face tightest schedules