Manchester United players have shown Marcus Rashford support on social media after the loanee made his first competitive appearance for Barcelona. Rashford replaced Ferran Torres midway through the second half after starting the Catalan club’s first competitive match this season as a substitute. The England international started their final pre-season friendly of the summer against Como, but was back on the bench when La Liga began. However, with the Catalan club leading 2-0 against a nine-man Mallorca team, Rashford came on for the former Manchester City forward. Torres had scored in the first half to double the lead after Raphinha had opened the scoring inside seven minutes. They then made it three in additional time through Lamine Yamal, who scored after setting up the opener.
Rashford shared a photo of them celebrating that goal on Instagram, alongside several other images from the match. "Best way to start," the post’s caption begins, with Rashford adding "Vamos equipo", which translates from Spanish into English as "Let’s go team". New teammate Ronald Araujo commented on the post with a red heart emoji and flexed biceps emoji, which Rashford also used in his caption. United players also showed their support for their teammate by liking the post. Diogo Dalot, Joe Hugill, Joshua Zirkzee, Rasmus Hojlund and Tyrell Malacia all did so, as have former Reds stars Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Brandon Williams, Donny van de Beek, Jesse Lingard, Patrice Evra and Shola Shoretire. However, his head coach, Hansi Flick, was unhappy with the team’s performance. "I didn’t like the match," he said. "These are three important points, but after going 2-0 up and with the two red cards, I think my team played at 50 per cent. That can’t happen.
"I need to talk to the players about this. You can’t play at 50 per cent against nine players, that’s not what I expect. Flick concluded: "This is not acceptable." He did, though, have sympathy for Rashford. "Rashford didn’t have the chance to play more freely because Mallorca was crowded at the back," the coach explained. "Also, the team played with less intensity, and I wasn’t happy about that."