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Cape Town — Former Manchester United stalwart Ryan Giggs has admitted he was “surprised” that Marcus Rashford did not insist on taking the penalty in the 1-1 draw with Wolves yesterday night.
United continued their solid start to the Premier League season with a draw at Molineux, having beaten Chelsea in their first game.
Rashford converted a penalty in that victory at Old Trafford, but watched on as an underwhelming Paul Pogba both took and missed a spot kick on Monday.
Giggs felt that Rashford should have been “demanding to take it”.
“Centre-forward, scores a goal in his first league game, penalty, you get another penalty in the next game, you’ve got to be demanding to take it,” Giggs told Optus Sport.
“It’s a shame, he was really disciplined tonight, Pogba.
“Pogba has not got a great record either of scoring penalties. He doesn’t score every penalty he takes.
“It seems like whoever wins the penalty gets to take it, I wonder if Maguire or Lindelof win the penalty, who gets to take it?
“I was surprised. I’m not surprised that Paul Pogba stepped up, because he’s that kind of player, which is obviously encouraging.
“I’m just surprised when you’ve scored a penalty the game before, that you get a penalty the next game you don’t take it. So you open up to criticism then, because if Marcus misses it then OK, you can miss a penalty, but now everybody is talking about why Marcus didn’t take it, why did Pogba take it?
“It should have been Marcus. It’s a strange one because before the game you usually have a designated penalty taker and you would think it would be Marcus after scoring last week. Like I say, he’s done it the week before.
“Again, there’s a conversation. Ole’s said after the game that they have two designated penalty takers and looking at this [last week’s] maybe they do, and again tonight they have the same conversation so it’ll be interesting to see, ‘Do you fancy it? No, I fancy it?’
“I can understand that situation because it’s the first penalty, but now Marcus has scored it, usually – you know when we’ve played, if you’ve scored a penalty, especially if it’s a centre-forward or forward player – he’s taking the next one.
“If I’d have gone walking over to Ruud van Nistelrooy he’d have just said, ‘Go back!’ and he’d have put the ball underneath his shirt. There’s no way you’re getting the ball off him.
“So that’s why I find it a little bit difficult to understand, once a centre-forward has scored a penalty, next penalty they get, they’re taking it.” — Sport24.
Online Reporter