WITH five goals in six league games since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took charge, Marcus Rashford goes into tonight’s huge FA Cup game at Arsenal as one of Manchester United’s most in form players. He’s benefitting from being ever-present, playing centrally as a forward in a side where the manager encourages his full-backs to push high and wide and create the chances which were lacking under Jose Mourinho.
Like other United players, his confidence has surged, and he’s delighted that the team is directed to focus on their own considerable strengths rather than their opponents’. Mourinho played more defensively because he wanted to protect a vulnerable defence. United’s players are enjoying their jobs again – and doesn't it show?
Rashford did play 90 minutes when United drew 2-2 against Arsenal in December. He was used in his favoured central attacking role too – having become fed up with being out wide. There wasn’t anything in the links with Real Madrid, but the idea behind them was to give United the message that ‘here’s a player who wants to play as a forward.’
Not that he’s always been a forward. Only days before he made his United debut in 2016, the club asked a former striker to have a word with him and give him some advice on what it’s like to play up front rather than midfield for Manchester United. United did this in panic for as the youth coach Paul McGuinness told me: “With the injuries, Van Gaal needed to turn to youth. He was at a stage where it was s**t or bust with regards to bringing young players in. He was brave enough to put them in and he’s been around long enough to have courage in his own decisions.”
Rashford has usually listened well to advice, and he needs to, for he’s still developing.
This season, a drop in form for Romelu Lukaku has given Rashford more chances. That drop partly came because Lukaku was feeding on scraps himself, but the Belgian’s confidence was down – it was clear to anyone at matches in his body language, even when he wasn’t on the ball.
Yet Rashford was hardly prolific himself, with two goals in 18 games by the end of that December 2nd Arsenal game. Fans liked him but had doubts and wondered if such a fuss would be made of him if he wasn’t a Mancunian United fan who’d come through the ranks.
Mourinho did rate him, however, – he described him as at the head of the youth talent at the club – and while he didn’t always play him in his favourite position, he did play him. Would he have had the same chances as a young prospect at Manchester City? Actually, Pep Guardiola told a former United legend earlier this season that Rashford was the only United player he’d like at City. Sir Alex Ferguson rated him, too and has told people for years that ‘we think the kid Rashford has got a real chance (of making it at as an established United forward).
Rashford is 21. He’s now a mainstay for Manchester United and England. He’s already played 150 times for his club, that milestone being reached in the win against Brighton last Saturday, United’s seventh straight victory. He also scored his 41st goal for the club.
Comparisons can be suspect, but let’s compare his stats with Cristiano Ronaldo’s in his first three seasons at Old Trafford. Rashford has played a similar amount of games in a similar position, come on in a similar number of matches, made a similar number of assists and scored more goals. It looks good, but Ronaldo was in a side that was in its ascendancy scooping up league titles and winning the Champions League. The worry with Rashford under Mourinho was that he could stall in a low-scoring and mediocre United side which wasn’t coming close to being the sum of its parts. United had a negative goal difference when Mourinho lost his job.
In Solskjaer, Rashford has found the perfect boss. Solskjaer was aware of him from when he worked at the club but the biggest plus was that he was a former striker himself, one who’d coached strikers.
Attacking fluidity is
We break down @MarcusRashford's strike v Brighton with @StatmanDave! #MUFC #MUTV pic.twitter.com/E6CyUSJpi6
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 23, 2019
Asked after Saturday’s game if Rashford is at the level of Ronaldo and Rooney, Solskjaer replied: “Yes. Definitely he can be absolutely top-class. He is only 21 but the maturity he is showing at times is more than 21 as is his work rate.”
Goals breed more confidence and as the Norwegian ex-striker, who knows exactly what he is talking about said: “The more you score the more you believe you are going to score. The more you score the more chance you have of being confident, running into the same positions. The way he works during the week is fantastic because he practises a lot.”
Solskjaer also appreciates that he can’t burn Rashford out and will be aware of Sam Allardyce’s comments this week that Rashford will struggle to be playing at the top level aged 30 because of the physical and mental demands on the Mancunian. But why not? He’s a clean-living athlete, not a player from Allardyce’s generation for whom beers were normal after training.
As one of United best players, he’s going to attract attention, get kicked and receive vocal stick on the field, though. That’s a compliment; just as it was when players tried anything they could to stop George Best or Ronaldo.
Brighton’s Catalan defender Martin Montoya went in hard on him last week. Rashford reacted with a heavy tackle of his own and was booked.
Solskjaer approved. “He is a proper Manc. “You can’t kick him and keep him down. He will stand up for a fight and stand up for himself and a teammate. It is a pleasure working with him.”
A pleasure shared by all those away fans who will be singing ‘Rashford is Red’ in their thousands at Arsenal on Friday.
