Ten Hag channels Cristiano Ronaldo with Marcus Rashford advice

Erik ten Hag used a term from Cristiano Ronaldo while predicting Marcus Rashford’s upcoming good form.

Rashford scored his first goal of the season in the Red Devils’ 3-0 victory over Southampton on Saturday, breaking a long drought for the striker.

The 26-year-old has not scored since March, when he scored in an FA Cup victory over Liverpool, but Ten Hag does not plan to wait so long for another goal now.

Despite their strained relationship, the Dutchman borrowed a phrase from Ronaldo and predicted that Rashford will score more goals now that he has received the first drop of ketchup.

‘It’s very important,’ Ten Hag told TNT Sports. ‘For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list. Once the first is in, more is coming.

‘Once a striker was talking about a ketchup bottle, once it’s going, it’s coming more.’

Ronaldo’s ketchup phrase was revealed by his Portugal teammate Diogo Jota last year, with the Liverpool forward saying the advice stuck with him.

‘I know that football is a game that can change very quickly and I once heard a story and Ronaldo certainly wasn’t 30 games [without scoring], but he had a number of games without scoring and people were asking him,’ Jota said.

‘He was saying that it’s almost like ketchup. When the first drop comes out, everything comes out so hopefully that’s the case for me as well.

‘That’s one of the sentences Ronaldo said and it really stuck in my mind all these years. I think football is unpredictable, and these are the things we like in this football game. Things can change very quick.’

Ronaldo and Ten Hag exchanged words in the media this week, with the Portuguese icon criticising his former manager at Old Trafford.

‘Manchester, they need to rebuild everything, in my opinion. The coach, they say they cannot compete to win the League and Champions League,’ he said in conversation with Rio Ferdinand on his YouTube channel.

‘Manchester United coach, you cannot say that you’re not going to fight to win the League or Champions League. You have to be, to mentally say, listen, maybe we don’t have that potential, but I cannot say that. We’re going to try. You have to try.’

Ten Hag responded in a press conference ahead of the Southampton game, saying: ‘He said Manchester United can’t win the Premier League. He said it if you read it well.

‘He is far away in Saudi [Arabia], far away from Manchester. Everyone can have and is entitled to have an opinion, it is okay. [It] doesn’t impact me, I know in the process where we are, where we’re going.’

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