Ten Hag outlines Rashford's best position

With absentees among the forwards at present, most notably Antony and Jadon Sancho, although Anthony Martial returned from injury at Aston Villa, our no.10 operated on the right of an attacking three at Villa Park, behind sole striker Cristiano Ronaldo.

Alejandro Garnacho started on the left, as he had on Thursday at Real Sociedad, meaning Rashford was on the opposite wing.

Limited to very few clear-cut chances across the 90 minutes, the Reds were beaten 3-1 in the West Midlands, with Unai Emery's reign beginning with three points.

When asked if he can see Marcus fulfilling a role over on the right more often, Ten Hag suggested this is probably not going to be the case.

''He can play there, as he can stretch across all the three positions, and he can score goals in each [of them],'' commented the boss, in his post-match press conference.

''The best position for [Marcus] Rashford is the number nine or coming in from the left.

''In the front line, we have our problems and, in this game, it was the best balance.''

United were undone at the start of both the first and the second half, with the Villans quick out of the traps on both occasions. 

Suffering our first defeat in our last nine outings in all competitions, Ten Hag's side had the stuffing taken out of them after the restart, with Jacob Ramsey cancelled out turning Luke Shaw's effort into his own net and, thus, scoring at the right end.

Having both Sancho and Antony out is clearly restricting our options, with the boss, of course, fully aware of this fact.

Rashford scored his 100th goal for his boyhood in the 1-0 victory at West Ham United and has been in goof form of late.

The striker will hope to be named in the England squad for the World Cup finals when Gareth Southgate's 26-man group for the tournament in Qatar is set to be announced on Thursday.