Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville was baffled by interim manager Ralf Rangnick's decision to leave Marcus Rashford out of the starting line-up for Saturday's 1-1 draw with Leicester City at Old Trafford.
Despite Cristiano Ronaldo being forced to miss out through illness and Edinson Cavani being unavailable through injury, the German decided to deploy Bruno Fernandes as a false-nine, as opposed to including Rashford in the starting line-up. The England international was the only senior striker available for selection and was, not for the first time recently, overlooked.
United, who earned a share of the spoils through Fred's fourth goal of the season, were toothless in the first half and looked bereft of an attacking threat. Ronaldo had netted a hat-trick in United's last Premier League outing and his absence was telling.
READ MORE: Manchester United fan snaps at Darren Fletcher amid another dire result
However, despite Rashford appearing to be the logical replacement for the Portuguese ace, Rangnick made the decision to select Fernandes as his most advanced attacker. After the game, the German admitted that Paul Pogba came in to replace Ronaldo, meaning he was forced into a tactical rejig, as opposed to drafting in Rashford in a straight swap.
With that said, Neville was perplexed by the decision, insisting the decision to leave Rashford on the bench had "killed" the academy graduate.
Neville told Sky Sports: "This is going to be a long two months for these Manchester United players and Manchester United fans if they are going to continue to play like that. It was really poor out there today and I did not have a clear idea of what they were trying to do.
"I was struggling with it a little bit before the game without a centre-forward. That has killed Marcus Rashford today, that, not playing in that team.
"I know he has been in poor form and lacked confidence, but for Cristiano Ronaldo to pull out this morning and then for Paul Pogba to go in and change the system of play and the way that the game has been approached, and not just put Rashford in as a straight swap when he has trained for the last ten days… I just think there are too many things at this club at this moment in time that are uncertain."
Rashford stepped off the bench in the second half to replace Scott McTominay.
Sign up to our United newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season.
