Erik ten Hag says Harry Maguire will miss the FA Cup final | OneFootball

Erik ten Hag says Harry Maguire will not be fit enough to take part in the FA Cup final against Manchester City on Saturday.

Ten Hag was attending the pre-match press conference ahead of the game and was asked about the fitness of several players..

“Maguire? It [the injury] didn’t heal as expected,” he said.

“Yeah, Harry Maguire is unavailable but for the rest, all of the players you mentioned are available. Tomorrow final training and we make final decisions but the way I see it now it looks good (that Mount, Lindelof and Martial are available).

The boss was then asked about Marcus Rashford being left out of the England squad.

“He looks good,” he replied.

“That is a career ups and downs, a down can also give fuel and that is what I see in training, he will be highly motivated, speak with your feet, highly intelligent, he has had a big career, I’m sure he will get over this and get more goals.”

Asked about the importance of the final, he said “every game I want to win and that’s it, I just focus on this game as I do for every game.

“I know it’s an important game as it’s about a trophy.”

On whether a win on Saturday would salvage United’s season, Ten Hag said:

“No, but it’s FA Cup final is a big event and we are there, even in the season is not in our way we are there, we have an opporunity and it’s never been easy but we have to go for it and we will go for it.

“We have to believe as we did last season as we have done often against good opponents, we play our best football and I expect that again on Saturday.”

Asked if he felt he needed to change anything tactically to clinch a win against City, he seemed to suggest he would keep things as they are, saying:

“I think we were very competitive until a VAR decision at Old Trafford, a tough decision I thought.

“No one understood, we haven’t seen this in the rest of the season, a decision in such moment. At Etihad, for 70 minutes we were very good in the game, we had opportunities to make a second goal, they had a bench and on Saturday we will have a bench.”

The mood then shifted as one reporter asked the Dutchman to comment on outside reports that this will be his last game in charge of United.

“I have nothing to say,” he replied. “Just focusing on the job I have to do and that is first win the game on Saturday and then the project, keep going with the project.”

Asked if he is thinking about transfers, he replied “Yes, of course but my focus is… until Saturday I only think about this game.”

He was then asked how he thinks his time at United will be judged.

“I came here to win trophies, Saturday, the next opportunity we achieved this, we earned this opportunity as a team and now we have to go for it.

“And in the same time in the last two years, of course, after every season you review it and we will see where we are in the project, things we have to change, we spoke lately about it, very good things, players coming up, values coming up and on Saturday we have a big opportunity to win the next trophy.”

Saturday’s showpiece occasion kicks off at 3pm.

There will be more quotes from Ten Hag’s presser in the embargoed section that is scheduled for release at 10.30pm on Saturday and will be covered here at the time.

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