Owen Hargreaves blasts 'mad' Manchester United transfer decision after Southampton win

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Owen Hargreaves has described Manchester United’s decision to listen to loan offers for Marcus Rashford as ‘madness’ and has also urged the club to keep Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo.

Rashford has made it clear that he is keen to leave United in order to find a ‘new challenge’ and the 27-year-old has attracted interest from several clubs across Europe, including Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan.

However, Rashford’s £325,000-a-week salary is a major hurdle and United are understood to be asking clubs to contribute at last half of that figure in order to sign the forward on loan this month.

Hargreaves, however, believes Rashford’s departure would be a ‘huge blow’ and feels the forward should still have a key role to play under Ruben Amorim.

Speaking after United’s 3-1 win over Southampton on Thursday evening, Hargreaves urged United to prioritise midfield and attacking reinforcements in the next two transfer windows and has questioned whether Amorim’s system will help the team dominate games.

‘I don’t know if anybody wants to play counter-attacking style, especially not Manchester United, you’re meant to play on the front foot, you’re meant to dominate the ball,’ Hargreaves told Premier League Productions.

‘That’s why Erik ten Hag got the job because he played this Ajax way, they dominated the ball, that’s why they got rid of David de Gea to get [Andre] Onana, to get a ball-playing goalkeeper.

‘But that didn’t materialise, United were best on the counter attack. Ten Hag’s best performance were on the counter-attack, like under Ole Gunnar [Solskjaer].

‘If you look at United under Amorim against Liverpool, Arsenal, City, where are they good – counter-attack. I think when you play with two central midfield players, they ended up with [Toby] Collyer and Bruno Fernandes, you’re not going to dominate the ball, and that’s against a team who are 20th in the Premier League.

‘I do think it is a work in progress on many levels, goalkeeper is set, defensively they’re not bad but they need work in the middle of the pitch and they need to sort the striker position out.

‘But obviously losing Marcus Rashford could be a huge blow, talk about Garnacho potentially leaving, that’s a worry.’

Napoli have made Garnacho their top target to replace Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who is set to join Paris Saint-Germain in a €70 million (£58.9m) deal.

When asked what he would do if he were in charge of United, Hargreaves replied: ‘Nobody’s leaving… Rashford’s not leaving, Mainoo’s not leaving, Garnacho… nobody is leaving.

‘They’re your best players, we’re going to help integrate these and build around them, you’re not going to get better than them.

‘To let these guys go on loan and pay half their wages is madness. Impossible, I wouldn’t let it happen.

‘I know maybe Marcus wants to go play somewhere, knuckle down and sort it out. Look at where Harry Maguire was a couple of years ago and now he’s got a new contract.

‘Football changes real quick and you want to keep your most talented players here. I think Garnacho, Mainoo and Marcus certainly are a part of that group and I think they could have a bright future if they just sort it out.’

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