During this international break, Erik ten Hag will have learned a lot about the performance of his Man United players.
Over the past ten days, the majority of Manchester United’s foreign players have gotten plenty of playing time.
After Andre Onana contributed to Cameroon’s 3-0 victory against Burundi to help them qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations by maintaining a clean sheet, Erik ten Hag has discovered that he may in fact be without him for a few games in January.
Bruno Fernandes demonstrated his leadership potential upon his return to European soil. The United captain recorded a hat-trick of assists, a tally of three goals, and another goal in the 9-0 thrashing of Luxembourg after scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 victory against Slovakia in a Euro 2024 qualifying match.
Portugal put Diogo Dalot at left-back for the entirety of that game, mirroring the position Ten Hag was compelled to fill at United.
having played the entire 90 minutes on the opposing flank against Slovakia in the previous match.
‘It’s a joke,’ insists Southgate in his fervent defense of Maguire
Prior to his team’s 1-0 victory over Finland, Christian Eriksen of Denmark was in similar form as Fernandes, scoring one goal and dishing up two assists in a 4-0 victory over San Marino in Euro qualifications. Rasmus Hojlund, a fellow Dane, played in both games as a substitute and saw action for slightly over 75 minutes total.
After scoring a goal in Scotland’s 3-0 victory against Cyprus to bring his Euro qualifying total to six, Scott McTominay gave Ten Hag pause and momentarily shared the lead in goals scored. In the 3-1 friendly loss to England, he played the entire game, as did
The Harry Maguire.
After Harry Kane was replaced, the substitute defender scored Scotland’s lone goal and held the armband for the remainder of the match. After receiving criticism for his pick, Gareth Southgate defended Maguire vehemently. Maguire played the full of Saturday’s 1-1 with Ukraine.
Marcus Rashford played for 71 minutes at Hampden Park after starting and playing for 21 minutes against Ukraine. As the South American 2026 World Cup qualifiers began, Lisandro Martinez was absent from both of Argentina’s matchday squads.
Despite having to leave the game against Arsenal due to a foot injury, manager Lionel Scaloni stated the defender was fit earlier this week but chose not to start him against Ecuador and Bolivia. After sitting out the encounter against Ecuador, Alejandro Garnacho played five minutes in the subsequent game.
On other parts of the continent, Casemiro scored the winning goals for Brazil in their 5-1 and 1-0 victories over Bolivia and Peru, respectively, and Facundo Pellistri played 91 minutes for Uruguay in its 3-0 victory over Chile and 2-1 loss to Ecuador.
Victor Lindelof led Sweden to 5-0 wins over Estonia and a 3-1 loss to Austria despite having to leave the game against Arsenal in the second half due to illness. This is further good news for the center defense position.
Prior to finishing the disappointing 1-0 loss to Kazakhstan, Jonny Evans scored in Northern Ireland’s 4-2 loss to Slovenia. Hannibal Mejbri played his first game of the year for Tunisia in a 3-0 victory over Botswana. He then got eight minutes of action in a 3-1 victory against Egypt.
Altay Bayindir, a new goalkeeper acquisition, earned his first Turkey cap in nearly a year when he entered the game against Japan at halftime in a 4-2 friendly loss. Sofyan Amrabat withdrew from the Moroccan team as has been well-documented; Ten Hag is anticipated to deliver an update on Friday.
Isak Hansen-Aaroen’s first goal for Norway’s Under-21s and Shea Lacey’s brace for England are two of the academy products that stand out.
Under-17s versus Spain after recording two assists in the loss to Portugal the previous week.
Dan Gore and Omari Forson were called up to England’s Under-20 training camp, while Maxi Oyedele picked up an assist for Poland’s Under-21 team after making his international debut against Kosovo last week.
