Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has attempted to explain why Raphael Varane is not in his starting line up at the moment, amid recent transfer rumours that the France international could make a move to Saudi Arabia.
Varane has somewhat surprisingly fallen out of favour at Man Utd at the moment, but Ten Hag didn’t give too much away as he was asked about the former Real Madrid man’s situation, simply stating that he was happy with the current partnership of Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans at the back.
One imagines a player of Varane’s calibre won’t be too happy to sit on the bench for much longer, so it will be interesting to see how this saga develops, especially as Fabrizio Romano has discussed interest from Saudi Pro League clubs in the summer, whilst also writing in his exclusive Daily Briefing column that he feels the 30-year-old deserves to be playing more.
When asked if there was an issue between himself and Varane, Ten Hag said, as quoted by the Metro: “Absolutely not. As I said, it is about tactical reasons why I chose these partnerships. I think Harry and Jonny did well.
“What I said last year, Harry didn’t play a lot, so I was very happy with Rapha’s performances. I have always been happy with his performance. But in this moment, Harry is playing very well and there is internal competition.”