A goal, a milestone and a birthday. It’s been a good week for Marcus Rashford.
Rashford’s powerful header against West Ham represents his seventh goal of the season and fourth in the Premier League.
It’s a good comeback so far and the academy graduate has certainly turned a corner and gained confidence after his rather dismal 2021/22, when he only scored five all season.
And reaching 100 goals before turning 25 – which he did with a day to spare – is no mean feat. He currently sits 13th on United’s all-time top scorers list and were he to stay at the club until, say, age 35 and average just 10 goals per season, he would end his career as United’s second-highest goalscorer, only behind Wayne Rooney. .
And yet there is still a sense of frustration with Rashford that he could be so much more than he is. His career goals per minute average of 209 is meh – not bad for a winger but disappointing for a striker, but more importantly disappointing when you consider how many chances Rashford seems to need to score.
In the Premier League this season, he has scored a goal every 238 minutes, missed five important chances and only has a 13% conversion rate. His four goals have come from a total of 30 attempts and the casual viewer would be forgiven for thinking that, given the kind of chances he’s had, it should have been double or even triple that amount (source: sofascore.com ).
On the other hand, the fact that he puts himself in those positions over and over again is a great strength. In theory, he’s doing the hard part well, it’s the easy part, putting her in the back of the net once she’s created the golden opportunity, which she struggles with. That is the frustration of the fans; with a little more composure and better decision-making, he could be a 25-30 goals per season player, even when he plays on the wing.
The big question is whether that can be taught or learned at this stage. With 27-28 generally considered the peak years for a footballer, there is still time for Rashford to grow up, but on the other hand, given his early start, many fans have a feeling that if he doesn’t have it now, he will never be. . Scoring consistency or “clinicity” has been an issue since his academy days and he has had flashes of improvement, only to lose it again.
As a winger, Rashford can be predictable. He will hit the ball past the defender and try to pass it at full speed, Dan “the Greyhound” James style, or run the ball at his feet directly towards the defender and hope to pass it. There’s something missing.
An extremely talented player, who doesn’t have the tricks of a winger or the clinical definition of a striker; to do?
Enter Erik ten Hag, the magician. If anyone can fix Marcus, it’s him. Ten Hag has certainly pushed Rashford further into an old-fashioned inside left role, at least when he plays alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, and it seems to be working. But he is an unusual position in modern football, one that is much more cautious than the days of 3-2-5, 4-2-4 or an attacking 4-4-2 when you had two marauding wingers making crosses for your two. (or even three) forward. If Rashford is going to be an inside left, the responsibility for providing width will almost always fall to the full-back, which in turn can create more responsibility for center backs and defensive midfielders to cover for him should he be stranded in the middle. countryside.
In other words, fitting Rashford into what appears to be his natural position comes at a cost and places restrictions on the formations the coach can employ when the No. 10 is on the team.
The inside left role is an intriguing development in Rashford’s career. It could just be a makeshift solution while Anthony Martial is injured and Jadon Sancho is out of form. But it could also be something of a reinvention of the England man, much like the way Thierry Henry was turned from winger to striker to great effect by Arsène Wenger. Whether he can function on a sustained basis in the coming months will very likely determine whether Rashford’s future lies in the Manchester United first team or not, especially with the availability on the market of younger players like PSV’s Cody Gakpo who offer a prolific career. goal creation. and scoring potential.
This article was reproduced with permission from United Matchday magazine.
