At this time, Manchester United has not been able to witness an explosive Marcus Rashford like last season.
Last season, Marcus Rashford was the most outstanding player. He helped Manchester United win the home derby against Man City. When they met in round 10 of the Premier League this season, the England international almost disappeared.
Rashford’s form has been a concern for Man United since the start of the season, but it reached its lowest point over the weekend. Man Utd’s number one star was unable to be effective at the most important time.
In fact, the 25-year-old player is still the leader even when he is not in good form. Man Utd still has reason to believe that Rashford can inspire the whole team to an important victory, although that hope is increasingly fading.
There is no denying that Rashford has reached world class thanks to his outstanding performances last season. However, no one knows how good he really is after such a poor start to the season.
“Rashford is not world class. He is a level below that,” Jamie Carragher declared on Sunday, before saying that Man United really need someone better than Rashford up front if they are to have any hope of success.
Rashford’s decision-making has been poor at times this season and he’s often made mistakes trying to do things alone. This is probably a bad habit from last season because at that time, he lacked support in attack.
Rashford also did not receive good enough support in the summer of 2023 when Man United failed to recruit a ready world-class striker like Harry Kane. Meanwhile, Jadon Sancho has long been no longer himself and Antony has not adapted to the new environment.
Rashford did well to cope with the pressure on his shoulders last season, but that was never sustainable and soon took its toll due to the tight schedule. Currently, Rashford seems to feel empty both physically and mentally.
Surely Rashford needs to rest. However, with Man United’s season spiraling out of control and Ten Hag desperately needing a win to revive the team against Newcastle United, it would not be surprising if Rashford started again.
Perhaps Rashford’s problem is position. Last season it was clear that Rashford played better on the left than in the middle. But the interesting thing about Rashford’s performance in the derby is that he played more brightly in the right wing role, which he did not like.
Speaking in the summer of 2023, Rashford explained why he prefers to drift to the left wing: “That’s because most of my playing style is to move and stretch the defense. On the left, it looks very natural and feels more comfortable.”
At this time, resting midweek is a reasonable idea to protect Rashford in the long term. And in the short term, moving Rashford to the right wing can also help this striker find freshness in his playing style.