SPORT: Football
DRESSING ROOM CONFLICT
Eric Bailly and several Manchester United players go to war against the coach because of his player choices.

Major divi­sions in the Man­ches­ter Unit­ed dress­ing room threat­en to fur­ther derail the club’s Cham­pi­ons League spot, with a num­ber of play­ers unhap­py with Ralf Rang­nick and his team selections.

The Man­ches­ter Evening News lists Eric Bail­ly and Mar­cus Rash­ford as two play­ers dis­en­chant­ed with life under Rang­nick, while claim­ing a Unit­ed star has called a team-mate a ‘pro­fes­sor’s pet’ because of how often they play under the German.

It is also alleged that play­ers mocked Rang­nick­’s CV amid dis­sat­is­fac­tion with his train­ing meth­ods. His only major tro­phy in his coach­ing career is the 2011 Ger­man Cup with Schalke.

Bail­ly would be appalled that out-of-form cap­tain Har­ry Maguire con­tin­ues to go ahead of him. The Ivory Coast inter­na­tion­al has made just sev­en appear­ances for Unit­ed this sea­son and was on the bench for the 4–1 draw with Man­ches­ter City, despite Raphael Varane test­ing pos­i­tive for Covid-19.

Maguire’s form is under intense scruti­ny and he failed to con­vince again in the City defeat.

Mean­while, reports sur­faced on Mon­day that Rash­ford is con­sid­er­ing his future at United.

Sports­mail have report­ed that the Eng­land inter­na­tion­al, who has just 18 months left on his cur­rent deal, is said to be con­sid­er­ing his future ahead of the sum­mer trans­fer window.

He has­n’t start­ed a Pre­mier League game since Feb­ru­ary 12, despite adding Cris­tiano Ronal­do and Edin­son Cavani to Unit­ed’s injured list ahead of the game against City.

The club will appoint a new man­ag­er ahead of next sea­son, and any deci­sion Rash­ford makes on his future could be influ­enced by who is appoint­ed as Ralph Rang­nick­’s successor.

MEN also name Dio­go Dalot as anoth­er unfor­tu­nate Unit­ed star. The Por­tu­gal inter­na­tion­al start­ed eight con­sec­u­tive games before los­ing his place to Aaron Wan-Bis­sa­ka in the 4–2 win over Leeds.

Wan-Bis­sa­ka retained his place in Unit­ed’s line-up despite the dis­ap­point­ing draw at home to Wat­ford before City lost.

Dio­go Dalot start­ed eight con­sec­u­tive games for Unit­ed before Wan-Bis­sa­ka replaced him

Dean Hen­der­son is also ref­er­enced in the MEN report, who claims he is ready to leave Unit­ed for good in the sum­mer window.

The 25-year-old No.2 goal­keep­er has played just three times for Unit­ed this sea­son and none of those appear­ances have come in the Pre­mier League.

Unit­ed leg­end Roy Keane raged all the way after being crushed by their fierce rivals on Sun­day night.

“The worst thing you can say about Unit­ed is that they gave up,” the for­mer Unit­ed cap­tain said on Sky Sports.

‘Giv­ing up is tru­ly unfor­giv­able. There is no hid­ing place. We saw all the short­com­ings of the Unit­ed States today. Any­one can lose foot­ball match­es, but los­ing it the way they did — play­ers not com­ing back when you play for Man Unit­ed is unacceptable.

“They threw in the tow­el, and it’s shame­ful. They are so far behind the oth­er teams. Your own pride has to come into play at some point!