Steve Bruce tells ‘petulant’ Man Utd player to ‘have a look at himself’ after Newcastle loss

Manchester United legend Steve Bruce thinks Marcus Rashford “needs to have a look at himself” after another underwhelming performance.

Erik ten Hag’s men slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle on Saturday evening – their third successive loss in all competitions against the Magpies – and were decidedly second-best until they very nearly snatched a point they really did not deserve amid a late rally.

Man Utd, who had thrown away a 3-1 lead at Galatasaray to draw 3-3 on Wednesday evening, created little of note – they saw a late goal ruled out after Antony’s shot had clipped Harry Maguire in an offside position – as their run of five wins in six league games came to an end.

Rashford cut a particularly frustrated figure at St James’ Park with the England international replaced on the hour mark by Ten Hag.

After scoring 30 goals in all competitions last term, Rashford has only managed two goals so far this campaign with the 26-year-old far from top form.

And former Man Utd centre-back Bruce thinks Rashford showed his “petulance” when reacting to being substituted against Newcastle.

READ MORE: Why Marcus Rashford would never last under Sir Alex after another poor performance for Man Utd…

“The body language of some of the players doesn’t look right,” Bruce told Stadium Astro.

“We’ve been talking now and the first one you look at is why all of a sudden Marcus Rashford, after how good he was, how good he played for England a few weeks ago, [has gone] to what you see now.

“Is he not happy playing on the right, what is wrong? We aren’t going to know what has happened behind the scenes if anything has happened.

“When he comes off, he shows that petulance, he is not happy. I think he needs to have a look at himself, to start with.

“It’s not just him, you look through the nucleus of the side and they have been blown away by Newcastle. That is the worry.”

Speaking about Rashford’s reaction to being substituted in his post-match interview, Ten Hag said: “I will talk to him and not the media.”

Man Utd defender Harry Maguire, who was one of the Red Devils’ better players on the night, urged his team-mates 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.”