Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag might be contradicting himself with Raphael Varane

Erik ten Hag spoke alongside Raphael Varane before Manchester United's game against Galatasaray in October and everything appeared to be healthy between manager and player.

There must be access given to a player before European fixtures and journalists can usually make an educated guess to predict which member of the dressing room will join Ten Hag at the press conference.

Along with Varane, Andre Onana, Diogo Dalot, Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes have spoken at press conferences this season and the bookmakers would make Luke Shaw their favourite to speak next.

ALSO READ: Varane stance on United future

ALSO READ: Ten Hag explains argument with Martial

Club sources would concede the general criteria for a player to speak at a European press conference is someone who is experienced, has media training, is a coherent communicator and plays regular football.

Although Varane ticked all of those boxes at the beginning of October, that has changed by December and there's speculation his relationship with the manager has become as frosty as the Manchester weather.

Unexpectedly, Varane has been moved to the bench and he's started just one of the last 11 games, with Jonny Evans, Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw being preferred alongside Harry Maguire in defence.

Varane picked up a 'minor injury issue' in October, but eyebrows were raised when Manchester City visited Old Trafford and Evans started over him, despite the Frenchman having recovered from the problem.

Ten Hag spoke ahead of that game and said Evans was starting for 'tactical reasons', something which he later double-downed on in his post-match debrief when explaining he was selected to help build up play.

Raphael Varane is a four-time Champions League winner