Is there a place for Rashford as a regular starter?

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el3mel said:
Ultimately it depends on his form, similar to also Sancho and Greenwood. Neither of them should be permanent starter regardless of form, even Sancho. The one who's in form and contributes to the team the most at the moment starts.
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This! No more having to play injured and hopefully no more low energy lacklustre performances from anyone. It can only be a good thing that it’s going to be harder to get into and stay in the team. That means standards are being raised. So many people on here act like you just need 11 players and everything else is a waste of time or approaching deadwood. Form ebbs and flows, injuries are always a possibility and all our best teams had world class options.
 
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The answer to this question for all our players now is there is a place for them in the starting lineup but they need to prove they are worthy of it. We have competition for places all over the pitch now. That will bring out the best in the most professional players with the right attitudes.
 
He'll tear up the league once he returns fully healthy.

He'll always have a place in the team.
 
Rightnr said:
This is just embarassing. Rashford has his fair share of sitters he misses, actually he scores the harder ones.
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It's not embarrassing at all. It's perfectly reasonable to expect that a forward and one of the club's top scorers would finish from there over a midfield player playing in a more advanced position.

My hope is that Rashford finds it sufficiently difficult to get back in the team to make him think twice about what he did this summer.

But he clearly will win his place back there. Give it a couple of weeks. Pogba's form will drop and Ole will be slated for playing him out of position on the left.
 
Jacob said:
While Greenwood, Sancho, Pogba, Bruno and Cavani are fit and at their best, where does that leave Rashford when he's back?

I would never want to lose him but if we replace Cavani with Haaland next summer, the situation looks even worse. I'm assuming Pogba stays obviously.

Would he be satisfied with a part-time role?
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Dafaq? We aren’t playing like 10 games a season. We pay close to 50 or 60 games sometimes. Haven’t you ever heard of a squad? Haven’t you heard of players having injuries and missing time? If City and Pep thought like you they wouldn’t have accomplished anything.
 
Marcus will he a regular but he should not be an automatic starter, especially if he's not fit.

Sancho and Pogba are superior than Marcus on a technical level and are better suppliers/passers. Greenwood is a better finisher than Marcus. All that to say, Marcus is a great left forward who still has another level or two.

His decision making and passing have to improve. If it does improve and becomes more consistent, he'll be borderline world class because he scores his fair share of goals, even if he's not the best finisher.
 
RDCR07 said:
Dafaq? We aren’t playing like 10 games a season. We pay close to 50 or 60 games sometimes. Haven’t you ever heard of a squad? Haven’t you heard of players having injuries and missing time? If City and Pep thought like you they wouldn’t have accomplished anything.
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Read the title again. I never said "is there a place for him in the squad?", for course there is. The question is whether he would be in amongst the first names on the team sheet. Other big teams don't rotate forward position that often.

I worded the title poorly. It would be better to name it "Is there a place for Rashford in our mainstay starting XI?" @Damien help please?
 
Yes he will definitely have a place. Don't forget how quality Rashford is. The Rashford of the second half of last year is not his true self. Once fully healed and rested, I'm sure he'll take to the challenge of winning his place back and up his game further. Exciting times.
 
Rashford with his pace and finishing (when he is on form) is deadly for counter attacks. Will be a great option to have off the bench after going 1 up and launch those counter attacks.

Lots of options up front, so excited with this team.
 
Hopefully his injuries (shoulder and foot) are the reason behind that bad 2nd half of the season and his face always looking like he's chewing some lemon.
If not, I think other guys will just expel him from first 11.
 
It would be crazy to sideline a player of Rashford's ability. Hopefully, we won't wear him out the way we have been doing, but when he's back from injury, I'd put money on him returning to his best form. I think we'll rotate more, but I think he'll play often enough to be able to call it regular. Plus, there's still uncertainty around Pogba.
 
There's enough space for everyone with the amount of games we have. Plus, having actual quality options for positions is a problem we haven't had in a long time, and it's the good sort of problem.

That being said, the team is more important than any individual player. If it so happens that Pogba ends up clicking well with Bruno and Sancho, and we have a good thing going there, and the Rash has to fight it out with Mason and Cavani up top, then so be it.
 
He had an ok season last season with 21 goals, despite playing half of it with his head down and clearly in pain. When was the last time we had a player score 6 champions league goals and scoring in both games against PSG. If he played in the French league he’d be up there with Mbappe.
 
Rashford--Bruno--Sancho

Pogba--Bruno--Sancho

Rashford--Pogba--Greenwood

We have so many options. Our squad depth is really good this season.

---------------------------Martial/Cavani
Rashford/Pogba--Bruno/Mata--Sancho/Greenwood

Sell James, Lingard and Pereira.
 
Jacob said:
While Greenwood, Sancho, Pogba, Bruno and Cavani are fit and at their best, where does that leave Rashford when he's back?

If we replace Cavani with Haaland next summer, the situation looks even worse. I'm assuming Pogba stays.

Is there a place for Rashford as a mainstay in our strongest XI?
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We'll have around 60 games by May 2022, I don't expect any of our players to play full minutes in all of them - so answer to your question yes.
 
Personally he wouldn’t be a first choice in my front 3 if all are at their very best, but as many have said there are plenty of games and there will be games where Rashfords skill set will be of great use against certain opposition. Whatever happens it’ll be great to have so many options so let them fight it out to see who plays and who doesn’t.
 
If Ole actually decided to use the squad this season rather than insisting on certain players playing practically every game there's enough minutes to go around. While I still think we're one DM away from a brilliant first Xi, we have great squad depth as long as we don't let them bench them to the point they lose match sharpness.
 
It seems disingenuous for people to pretend the OP meant he would never play. He was clearly talking about scenarios when everyone was fit and available and discounting other factors such as fatigue, rotation and all the rest of it.

Such faux-misunderstanding would not happen if this thread was made about any other player
 
Highfather_24 said:
Rashford--Bruno--Sancho

Pogba--Bruno--Sancho

Rashford--Pogba--Greenwood

We have so many options. Our squad depth is really good this season.

---------------------------Martial/Cavani
Rashford/Pogba--Bruno/Mata--Sancho/Greenwood

Sell James, Lingard and Pereira.
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Against teams like Norwich if we want to actually show our intent and get some serious goals.
I’d go.
Midfield 3
Right VDB, attacking Bruno, left pogba.

Right Sancho, centre Greenwood/Cavani, left Rashford

There is a lot of ifs to this.
If VDB can finally settle and show his quality.
If Sancho settles and shows what we expect him too.
If Greenwood can continue the form we are seeing.

Also I don’t mean to be negative but I doubt we’ll see much of Mata this season. Therefore he either uses more of VDB to give Bruno a rest or he keeps lingard.
 
I dont want any player in our squad to feel comfortable in their position. The only real mainstays right now are Bruno, Maguire and Shaw and that's okay because they deliver almost every week.
 
Steve 007 said:
Against teams like Norwich if we want to actually show our intent and get some serious goals.
I’d go.
Midfield 3
Right VDB, attacking Bruno, left pogba.

Right Sancho, centre Greenwood/Cavani, left Rashford

There is a lot of ifs to this.
If VDB can finally settle and show his quality.
If Sancho settles and shows what we expect him too.
If Greenwood can continue the form we are seeing.

Also I don’t mean to be negative but I doubt we’ll see much of Mata this season. Therefore he either uses more of VDB to give Bruno a rest or he keeps lingard.
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I think it’s more likely Greenwood will be competing with Rashford than either with Cavani. If Cavani is fit I think he plays. Rest/rotation etc permitting
 
This thread is very bad vibes but OP does make a point. If pogba stays we have a lot of selection headaches. Still Rashford is the only player in the team with blistering pace and directness(James is not an option). He will be favored in our big game matchups while Pogba will probably play more against low block sides. Bruno is the only player with no real competition for his place. Maybe Sancho could also play the 10?
 
Of course he’ll be a regular, he’s still a very good player. If anything, he’ll benefit from not having to play as many minutes and shoulder as much responsibility. He’ll also feel he has something to prove.
 
Personally, with everyone fit I would say that Greenwood, Sancho and Cavani would be the best front 3 with Bruno behind. I suspect that Ole would find a way to get Rashford in though, probably in place of Greenwood mostly which is a shame as he could develop into a world class player.
 
I certainly think he has the skill, ability, and work ethic to but I do agree him missing the start of the season may make it harder for him to get his place back.
 
Rashford's directness and pace will be absolutely key in games where we need to counter so he'll start most of those games. For the other games, you can rotate pretty much all of the attack, so long as we make sure there is at least one starting creative player.

For example, a front three of Rashford/Cavani/Greenwood shouldn't really play much this season. All goal scorers, not enough creativity. This is part of the reason why there were so many games last season where our attack looked pedestrian, especially when you combine this with a McFred midfield and AWB at RB. Notice towards the end of the season when pogba came into the front three, our attack was more potent, Even though Ole insisted on starting Rashford on the right (Greenwood would have IMO been better suited there).
This is going be a very exciting season because we now have the squad capable of creating so many variations of the two scorers/ one creater front three combo and also many games that all the players will get enough game time.

The issue I think Ole will have is deciding what to do in those big games that everyone wants to play in, when they're are all fit. I think Rashford will still start due to his pace and how often it has rewarded the manger's faith in these games. This then leaves two spots which I think should go to Cavani and Sancho. Greenwood is still young so he'll live with it. However, pogba and martial may understandably unhappy.

As a sidenote I'm also curious to see how we'd look if we use a two creatives and one scorer front three.
 
BoltonWanderer said:
I don't think Rashford is as good as Pogba when both are on form, and he's not got the same potential as Greenwood or Sancho. I'm sure Rashford will get a lot of games but to me, like Martial, he shouldn't be a first team regular.

If you looked at Rashford early on in his career and compare it to now, there isn't a lot of progression there. Even his biggest fans have to admit he hasn't kicked on like you hope a 19/20 year old will do. He'll be 24 when he next plays for United and yet some of his most impressive showings were under LVG.

Aa a project, I just think United would be better off backing Greenwood. His ceiling is far higher.
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Rashford hasn't improved since he's been a first teamer? What? At times he was the only player keeping us from being a midtable team he was that good. And other times he's been a regular matchwinner. That's far more than the Rashford who Mourinho benched a lot of the time. This version of Rashford pre-second half of last season would have Mourinho not even bothering with the Martial competition and playing him constantly. FFS.
 
I think anyone except Bruno should be considered replaceable
 
If Pogba plays like this throughout the season, Rashford is going to have trouble getting in the team.

And that will be brilliant. Some serious quality in that front line when you have at least two of Sancho, Rashford, Greenwood, Cavani and Martial on the bench.
 
If any one of Rashford, Sancho, Pogba, Greenwood or Martial produces output like Bruno does for us, they will be an automatic starter. Otherwise they will have to contend with being rotated, and play specially when their form and tactical considerations demand it.
 
I just hope Ole stops with the favoritism and sentimentalism, he needs to be more practical with rotating players instead of continuing to play out of form players.
 
manunited1919 said:
I just hope Ole stops with the favoritism and sentimentalism, he needs to be more practical with rotating players instead of continuing to play out of form players.
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To be fair this could be said about fans too.

There is people who already believe Sancho is better than Rashford when one player hasn't even settled in or had one good performance for us yet.
 
CG1010 said:
If any one of Rashford, Sancho, Pogba, Greenwood or Martial produces output like Bruno does for us, they will be an automatic starter. Otherwise they will have to contend with being rotated, and play specially when their form and tactical considerations demand it.
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Rashford's output was better than Bruno's if you exclude penalties last season.

Bruno is a beast at penalties though, so can't take away that from him.
 
roonster09 said:
Rashford's output was better than Bruno's if you exclude penalties last season.

Bruno is a beast at penalties though, so can't take away that from him.
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In the league he got only 11 goals while Bruno got 18. If he can get 20 goals in the league which is doable by him provided he comes back to playing soon enough, then he wouldn't be easy to leave out. The same goes for others too.
 
Bebestation said:
There is people who already believe Sancho is better than Rashford when one player hasn't even settled in or had one good performance for us yet.
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I mean, Sancho's been playing at an incredibly high level for a couple of seasons now, so it's pretty clear why people would believe that. He's not exactly an unproven kid.

I think Rashford is awesome. I also think Sancho is better.
 
BoltonWanderer said:
I don't think Rashford is as good as Pogba when both are on form, and he's not got the same potential as Greenwood or Sancho. I'm sure Rashford will get a lot of games but to me, like Martial, he shouldn't be a first team regular.

If you looked at Rashford early on in his career and compare it to now, there isn't a lot of progression there. Even his biggest fans have to admit he hasn't kicked on like you hope a 19/20 year old will do. He'll be 24 when he next plays for United and yet some of his most impressive showings were under LVG.

Aa a project, I just think United would be better off backing Greenwood. His ceiling is far higher.
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Rashford has improved in every metric/attribute since his debut (except maybe heading) season, there is consistent development every season.

I agree with one bit though, 2019-20 he was unplayable and he wasn't the same after the injury. He looked less electric and he isn't taking on players like he used to.

Rashford's impressive showings are under Ole, it's not even close. Also yes, Greenwood is better talent, but not sure what do you mean by backing Greenwood. We can back more than one player and they don't even play same positions.
 
CG1010 said:
In the league he got only 11 goals while Bruno got 18. If he can get 20 goals in the league which is doable by him provided he comes back to playing soon enough, then he wouldn't be easy to leave out. The same goes for others too.
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Yeah, that's why I said excluding penalties.

Excluding penalties, Rashford got 11, Cavani 10, Bruno 9.

Bruno got 12 assists, Rashford 9.

So both of them contributed 20 league goals (without penalties).

Yeah, he can get 20 league goals, he makes many runs from wing position, with players like Pogba, Bruno creating chances, our forwards (especially Greenwood, Rashford) should score lot of goals as they are more direct players.
 
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