In fairness to Ten Hag, at that point there weren’t exactly a host of attacking options on his bench to call upon.
Alejandro Garnacho had already been introduced at half-time in place of Marcus Rashford, itself a surprising change after the 26-year-old had scored one and made another during the first 45 minutes. The United boss said that switch was purely to “rotate” his squad before facing Aston Villa on Sunday.
It did, however, leave him relatively short of attacking moves to make in the second period, with winger Antony and forward Joshua Zirkzee also having been brought on in a double switch 10 minutes prior to Maguire and Evans.
By the time the centre-half duo were preparing to enter the field, the visitors were left with 20-year-old midfielder Daniel Gore as one option, with only two previous substitute appearances to his name, plus the more defensive-minded Manuel Ugarte and Toby Collyer.
Defender Victor Lindelof and back-up goalkeepers Tom Heaton and Altay Bayindir were the only other players on the bench so, unless Ten Hag was planning a sensational David James-style substitution, he wasn’t spoilt for choice.
