Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes have agreed on the way Erik ten Hag dealt with the Marcus Rashford situation after the forward was dropped for Manchester United's trip to Wolves for "disciplinary" reasons.
The 25-year-old was named on the bench for the Red Devils' clash at Molineux despite scoring in United's 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Tuesday. Rashford later revealed he was punished because he overslept and was late for a team meeting.
United struggled in the first-half when Rashford wasn't on the pitch, with Alejandro Garnacho missing a gilt-edge chance to give the Red Devils the lead. But Ten Hag's side looked a different beast when Rashford came on and he looked like he had a point to prove.
Rashford netted the winner in the 76th minute with a terrific solo strike, slotting past Jose Sa after weaving through the Wolves defence. However, before the game, Scholes and Ferdinand had heaped praise on Ten Hag, although United didn't play as well without Rashford.
Scholes told BT Sport: "I love the way he deals with it. Marcus Rashford today would be the first name in the team but he’s obviously done something that’s upset him, the rest of the team, Marcus has paid for it."
Ferdinand added: "Over the last few years, this changing room has needed that hardness, discipline, you see it in the game at times there’s certain times in the game.
"You think back to when we played, if the manager showed weakness, it’s like the Cristiano Ronaldo situation, we can all have our opinion but the most important people are those in that changing room. If they’re responding to these decisions with respect, step out of line you’re punished immediately that can only be positive for this dressing room."
This isn't the first time Ten Hag has showed strength to make a key decision before a game after he decided to drop Cristiano Ronaldo completely from the squad for their trip to Chelsea in October. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner refused to come on as a late substitute in the 2-0 win over Tottenham and stormed straight down the tunnel.
Ten Hag was visibly frustrated with Ronaldo after the full-time whistle and their relationship became even more fractured from that point on. It eventually hit boiling point when Ronaldo hit out at the Dutchman and claimed he doesn't respect Ten Hag in an explosive interview with Piers Morgan.
Days later, United confirmed they had terminated Ronaldo's contract with mutual consent, 15 months after the 37-year-old re-joined the club from Juventus. Ronaldo has now found a new club as he put pen to paper on a lucrative deal with Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr on Friday.
