After the mayhem of Selhurst Park in May, this was something altogether more mundane from Manchester United. Perhaps that’s not such a bad thing for Erik ten Hag.
A first goalless draw for the Dutchman in more than nine months, and a third clean sheet in a week. The whirlwind of last season has died down, for now at least.
This being United, though, drama is never far away even on days like these. Ten Hag rounded on claims from Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp that the decision to put Marcus Rashford on the bench hinted at discord behind the scenes.
‘Crazy!’ was the response from Ten Hag, who insisted he was merely rotating his squad. The United manager had a point. There were six other players who started the 7-0 win over Barnsley in the Carabao Cup in midweek on the bench here and no one mentioned them. In the build-up, Ten Hag answered questions about Rashford’s lifestyle issues last season and deserves credit for that. It would have been easier to duck them.
However, Redknapp raised some fair questions too. If rotation is so important, then why was Rashford the only change from United’s previous league game at Southampton? Having backed him when he wasn’t playing well, why rest him when he was in the groove with three goals in two games? Where Ten Hag took offence was the insinuation that something ‘untoward’ had gone on.
Manchester United drew 0-0 at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday evening
United manager Erik ten Hag pictured applauding his team’s supporters following the match
Marcus Rashford started Saturday’s game on the bench before coming on in the 61st minute
Jamie Redknapp offended Ten Hag with insinuations about his relationship with Rashford
Maybe Rashford was a little taken aback by the headlines on Saturday morning. The relationship with is manager has been a little strained at times, and not only because Ten Hag had to discipline him on two occasions last season for going nightclubbing.
Rashford, for instance, feels that one of the main reasons for his alarming drop in goal output wasn’t so much his lifestyle but Ten Hag’s decision to play him deeper on the left flank.
Either way, one assumes it will all be forgotten and that Rashford will be in the starting line-up against Twente on Wednesday evening when Ten Hag will want to kick off the Europa League campaign with a win.
United lacked a killer instinct here without Rashford and also when he came on for the last half an hour. But there is a calmness and control about them that was missing amid the carnage of last season — never more so than in a 4-0 defeat at Selhurst Park that almost cost Ten Hag his job.
This was a very different game. United dominated the first half but Palace, still without a league win this season, made it a more even second half.