Erik ten Hag hails Bruno Fernandes’ decision to hand Marcus Rashford penalty duty as ‘one of the examples’ why he was named Man United captain… as the Portugal star claims: ‘I might have missed, we’ll never know!’

Erik ten Hag has heralded the ‘great leadership’ of Bruno Fernandes in his decision to allow Marcus Rashford to step up and score from the spot against Everton on Sunday – and named it was ‘one of the examples’ why the Portugal international is captain.

Manchester United travel to Galatasaray on Tuesday in a bid to rescue their turbulent Champions League hopes at the atmospheric RAMS Park, but will do so with greater confidence following their decisive victory at Goodison Park over the weekend.

Rashford – who finished United’s last campaign on a titanic 30 goals across all competitions – broke his eight-game drought by netting just after half-time when given the nod by his captain.

After the final whistle, Fernandes said that he had done so in a bid to ‘boost’ his confidence, and both the midfielder and his manager doubled down on their comments ahead of their European clash on Wednesday.

Fernandes said that the decision to hand the penalty to his team-mate was ‘in the moment’, adding: ‘He is important for us. For strikers it is about getting the first goal. We need our strikers to have the confidence to score them’.