Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag continued on his war of words with Erik ten Hag after Marcus Rashford scored for Manchester United in a 3-0 thrashing of Southampton, MySportDab reports.
Speaking in post-match press conference, ten Hag described Marcus Rashford’s goal as “very important” after the forward had struggled to find the back of the net in over six months.
‘It’s very important,’ Ten Hag told TNT Sports
And that was not all. The Dutchman went on to add that since Rashford has broken his 12-game deadlock, more goals is expected to come from the forward but the closing of his remark was a subtle dig on Cristiano Ronaldo.
”For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list. Once the first is in, more is coming.”
”Once a striker (apparently referring to Ronaldo) was talking about a ketchup bottle, once it’s going, it’s coming more,” he added.
Obviously, the United boss was talking about Cristiano Ronaldo in his last statement. Ronaldo had used the phrase ‘opening a bottle of ketchup’ to mean ‘once the first drop (a goal or trophy) comes out, everything (other goals and trophies) comes out.’
While Ten Hag’s usage of the Al-Nassr forward’s phrase came more as a sublime metaphor to qualify his thoughts, it came just a few days after the pair locked horns in a bitter media row.
On his YouTube channel, Ronaldo had aimed a subtle dig at Erik ten Hag for saying Manchester United cannot win the Premier League or compete for Champions League title.
Ten Hag replied the Portuguese, insisting everyone has an opinion on Manchester United like Cristiano Ronaldo’s which may not count.
Erik Hag Hag broke even on the piling pressure on his job after Manchester United saw off Southampton to return to winning ways after back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Liverpool before the international break.
Rashford scored in either of side of Matthijs de Ligt and Alejandro Garnacho’s goal to end his duck and register his first goal of the season for United.