Man United’s Rashford, Ten Hag And De Gea Are Awarded Three Of The Four Premier League Monthly Awards For February!

Marcus Rashford, Erik ten Hag, and David de Gea have won the Premier League Player, Manager and Save of the Month awards for February. 

It was a good month for the Red Devils, which saw them take 10 points from 12 on offer in the top flight to cement their third-placed standing in the table, and Rashford showed no signs of slowing down on the goalscoring front, scoring five goals in four league fixtures across the month.

The England forward won the award for the third time this season, and the second consecutive month, after being handed the honours in September. 

He is the first player to win the award in consecutive months since Ilkay Gundogan did so in January and February 2021.

Rashford scored in all four of Man United's Premier League games in February.

After netting his side's second against Crystal Palace, he was on target as United came from behind to draw with Leeds United, four days before making the net ripple in a 2-0 Elland Road success.

Finally, Rashford struck a brace at home to Leicester City on February 19, taking his tally to 14 goals for the season in the top flight - only Ivan Toney (15), Harry Kane (18) and Erling Braut Haaland (27) have more.

The 25-year-old emerge winner of the award from a six-man shortlist of Emerson Royal, Ollie Watkins, Kelechi Iheanacho, Bernd Leno and Manor Solomon.

He has also matched Mohamed Salah’s record of claiming the award thrice in the same season, having won it in September, January and now February.

"It's obviously always good to be amongst the conversation," Rashford told MUTV after winning the award. "To be awarded this Player of Month, I feel like especially in the last three months, you could give it to anyone.

"Any of the people that have been voted deserve to win it, it obviously makes me feel really proud that I have managed to do it three times.

"All the players that have been up for it, even some of the ones that haven't been up for it deserve it. It shows that, as a team, we are improving and, hopefully, we can continue doing that."

Rashford now boasts a total of four Premier League Player of the Month awards, having also won the vote in January 2019.

 

Meanwhile, goalkeeper David de Gea's superb stop from close range to deny Kelechi Iheanacho powerful header wins the Save of the Month.

Manager Erik Ten Hag also won the Manager of the Month prize, having guided his side through an unbeaten month.

It is the second time that both Rashford and Ten Hag have won the awards together as they were both rewarded for their respective success in September.

Manchester United have now won the Manager of the Month and Player of the Month award in the same month twice in a single season for the first time since 2007/2008, when Sir Alex Ferguson and Cristiano Ronaldo first did it.

Ten Hag won the prize ahead of other nominees; Tottenham's boss Antonio Conte,  and Fulham manager Marco Silva. The Dutchman joins the long list of multiple manager of the month winners, he is the 47th manager to be rewarded more than once.

The former Ajax manager also helped to secure United’s first trophy since 2017, beating Newcastle United 2-0 in the Wembley's Carabao Cup final.

Man United got off to an ideal start in March with a 3-1 win over West Ham United in the FA Cup, but suffered an embarrassing 7-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield last Sunday.

Nevertheless, Ten Hag still named an unchanged starting XI that eased past Real Betis 4-1 in Thursday's Europa League round-of-16 first leg. 

They had knocked-out runaway La Liga leaders Barcelona from this same competition in the play-off round.

The Red Devils now prepare to host Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, before travelling to Seville to play Betis in the Europa League second leg last-16 encounter next Thursday.