[BarstoolProphet]

Something was clearly wrong with him yesterday. After an early sprint he was holding his hip and his knee for a couple of mins. After that he was completely out of this game, not even making a single one of his trademark defensive runs. He's either injured or completely knackered. Didn't even want to take the freekick at the end. Rashford before Christmas would would be first in line.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

He looked absolutely knackered yesterday - thought for sure he was going to do his hamstring with one of those sprints.

 

[RedStarUnited]

T me he looked disinterested rather than knackered. He looked like his mind was elsewhere. He should have come off before James.

 

[youngrell]

It was quite obvious from the opening minutes when he took on that stupid long range shot instead of driving forward with the ball that he was going to have one of those games.

I think he is massively fatigued and shooting like that is his usual go to when he's got nothing in his legs. You may as well pull him as soon as he does it because you know that a lethargic performance is going to follow. Despite Lingard being woeful, I think Rashford should have been the first sub made.

Still, he has been great mostly and will hopefully get back to that with a short rest.

 

[André Dominguez]

Needs a rest. Looked very tired.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

He was lazy yesterday from the start. Hurt our pressing up front. The kid has a long way to go to become half the striker andy cole was.

How many times did Andy Cole play on the wing then?

 

[DoomSlayer]

He sure did today.

You waited a long time to say something like that, didn't you? Pathetic.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Needs a rest. Looked very tired.

How shall we manage that? Now against Wolves or against Norwich?

Our squad is so thin we can't even rest players really. Although Greenwood should start the next one for sure at least.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

How shall we manage that? Now against Wolves or against Norwich?

Our squad is so thin we can't even rest players really. Although Greenwood should start the next one for sure at least.

Play him against Wolves in the FA Cup, rest him against City in the Carabao Cup.

 

[AshRK]

He wasn't good but how many times did our midfielder chose not to give him the ball when he had ample of space. Even van persie and Rio pointed out that. Ole should be talking to Fred, Matic and Maguire to maybe release the ball quicker. More than Rashford it were them who were poor.

 

[SATA]

Club should give him two weeks off and return just in our time for our EL round of 16. He’s been playing a lot. Mason can take his spot for the time being

 

[André Dominguez]

How shall we manage that? Now against Wolves or against Norwich?

Our squad is so thin we can't even rest players really. Although Greenwood should start the next one for sure at least.

We still have the League Cup against City at 07/01. Might rest him against Norwich, imho. But in reality we can't afford to loose points, so won't happen unless he gets injured.

 

[DRM]

How shall we manage that? Now against Wolves or against Norwich?

Our squad is so thin we can't even rest players really. Although Greenwood should start the next one for sure at least.

Thanks to poor planning in the summer, we can't! Rashford, James, Fred are all gassed and are in desperate need of some R&R. We have no option but to keep playing them.

 

[Maticmaker]

Rashford looked completely out of it yesterday. It was hard to tell why, his recent run of form has been good, so the odd off day can be expected. However in my opinion it was more than that, Marcus didn't looked ready to compete and every time the fourth official came to the touchline to signal a United change, he seemed to look up hopeful he might 'get pulled'.

Whilst they can play together successfully,I am not sure Rashford and Martial really want to, as both seem to want the 'top dog' spot! Its a real shame because we've had some great striking partnerships over the years Rooney/Ronaldo; Cole/York, even Sheringham/Solskjaer, to name but a few, but it doesn't look like Marcus and Tony want to share the spoils and perhaps Ole is struggling with this conundrum as he seems to be with his best midfield line ups?

 

[Mcking]

What? Has he feck.

He was awful today though, and when he doesn't play well we dont win.

What the feck are you talking about? He was terrible today, reminiscent of earlier in the season, but that was the first really bad game in a while.

His last really good game was against Spurs. Watford, burnley, Villa, Newcastle, arsenal, he wasn't good enough.

 

[Red00012]

Club should give him two weeks off and return just in our time for our EL round of 16. He’s been playing a lot. Mason can take his spot for the time being

He’s not 35 years of age.

 

[GledTheRed]

Rest him for the FA cup, Wolves will beat us anyway.

 

[lumeyes]

when has he ever looked interested against a team that doesn't give him space? He has been great this season but still has much to learn. Looks clueless on the ball when we are trying to break teams down. Need better coaches to teach him what to do in those cases.

He needs to be properly coached. In fact I would consider a competent coaching staff more essential now. We can bring in Messi and CR7 to the current set up and they'll look like white walkers. I have no idea why the management of the club can't see that our players need to be coached better in order to maximise their potentials and minimise their weaknesses. Anyone watching Mane and Firminho now would think they never had any issues in the past, it took less than a year under Klop to iron them out. When you have a manager who only knows one highway to the destination, his players are bound to get lost when that highway gets blocked. Sometimes I think it's not just a matter of incompetence from the coaching crew but more of an unwillingness to try out other options. You may call it laziness.

He’s going to have to start training ball control and ball retention.

His ball control and dribbling is quite amateurish when he doesn’t have space to run into.

All those hours he spends on that YouTube knuckle ball technique should now be reinvested

And in addition respect his limitations and build more on his strengths. That would require a proper team work. There are very few one-tree forest in football.

It was quite obvious from the opening minutes when he took on that stupid long range shot instead of driving forward with the ball that he was going to have one of those games.

I think he is massively fatigued and shooting like that is his usual go to when he's got nothing in his legs. You may as well pull him as soon as he does it because you know that a lethargic performance is going to follow. Despite Lingard being woeful, I think Rashford should have been the first sub made.

Still, he has been great mostly and will hopefully get back to that with a short rest.

I have seen the bolded a number of times and it's frustrating. Other players do the same in some other fashion. Martial used to consistently run the ball into a dead end when he played from the left. A few times I've caught myself muttering "no, no, don't do it". Very obvious to see that it would be very difficult to go past strong footed defenders in such circumstances. A bit of cutting back, passing to a team mate, moving around and so on would make a whole lot of difference. Perhaps Ole and his crew need to go for coaching training. I want to believe they are not training and passing instructions to the players well enough, considering they never get angry with a constant display of such amateurish football.

Not only did Rashford have the option to drive forward in that situation, he also had the possibility to pick out Martial who would essentially be one-on-one with erratic Luiz.

 

[MikeKing]

He wasn't good but how many times did our midfielder chose not to give him the ball when he had ample of space. Even van persie and Rio pointed out that. Ole should be talking to Fred, Matic and Maguire to maybe release the ball quicker. More than Rashford it were them who were poor.

I do agree, but I do think Rashford needs to decide if he is going to be a player that floats in and out of games depending on his teammates or if he will be a leader that can change the game. It felt like Rashford did well in the start, then he didn't take his chances and lost confidence in the team. I don't blame him for the reaction entirely, but if he instead stay persistent then an opportunity may present itself to him..but he just fully checked out for the game after messing up a couple of chances.

 

[BlueHaze]

I noticed against both Burnley and Arsenal after a couple of sprints he was grabbing his lower back. Wouldn't surprise me if he's injured as well. Would explain why he was so anonymous the last two.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Ole's going to run him into the ground. Guy needs a break.

 

[tob]

Spoiler

Having watched this clip, I wonder how many runs he actually does that we don't get to see. I'd guess it's quite a lot.

Quite an interesting anecdote from Rio and RvP as well.

 

[thepolice123]

Spoiler

Having watched this clip, I wonder how many runs he actually does that we don't get to see. I'd guess it's quite a lot.

Quite an interesting anecdote from Rio and RvP as well.

Someone like Bonucci or De Vrij would have played the long ball to Rashford. But its really down to the coaching behind the scenes. We have no discernible passing pattern. Giving the safe ball to Shaw who was essentially in a dead spot just highlights everything about it.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

How many times did Andy Cole play on the wing then?

Rashford doesn't really play on the things. His role is pretty much that of a second striker/ forward. Much like Salah he's expected to deliver as a striker would be.

 

[roonster09]

He looked absolutely knackered yesterday - thought for sure he was going to do his hamstring with one of those sprints.

Yeah, thought same. He looked exhausted from min 1, which wasn't surprising considering he played almost every game. He should be rested in the FA cup, we don't have options but it's better to play James as LW and rest Rashford for at least a week.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Rashford doesn't really play on the things. His role is pretty much that of a second striker/ forward. Much like Salah he's expected to deliver as a striker would be.

Well, he does. Yes, he ends up centrally quite often, but when he defends, he has to back into position - something Andy Cole, as a striker, obviously didn't have to do, and with Liverpool playing with 3 hardworking centre midfielders, it gives Salah much more freedom than say it does Rashford in a 4231.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Well, he does. Yes, he ends up centrally quite often, but when he defends, he has to back into position - something Andy Cole, as a striker, obviously didn't have to do, and with Liverpool playing with 3 hardworking centre midfielders, it gives Salah much more freedom than say it does Rashford in a 4231.

Periera often plays as an AM for us. Mctominay, Periera and Fred are as hard working as it gets. And unlike Liverpool we have Shaw and AWB who are defensive fullbacks. To add to that, Martial drops deep to help out with the buildup. So Rashford operates like Martial as a forward. The expectation from both is to perform like your modern day forward like Neymar, Salah etc would (with service from the creative force sadly).

 

[-Supreme-]

Had a great goal scoring chance but took far too many touches

The other chance was a counter attack but didn't make the right decision when he should have passed to Williams instead

 

[Isotope]

I hope we'd never rely on him as a striker. Anywhere but a striker is fine.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Had a good chance. Maybe it came too early for him.

 

[DoomSlayer]

Sell Rashford, get RantsNBants from the United stand to play instead, proper badman and oozes footballing intelligence. Who's with me?

Pricks

 

[Stadjer]

Did he lose the great form he was in when playing against Spurs and City or is he mostly just very good in a counter setup?

Last few games against more defensive teams he hasnt looked that impressive.

 

[Brophs]

Had a good chance. Maybe it came too early for him.

That was my thinking. If he was up and running he’d have taken his touch and hit it.

 

[3KDré]

Did he lose the great form he was in when playing against Spurs and City or is he mostly just very good in a counter setup?

Last few games against more defensive teams he hasnt looked that impressive.

I do think he is better counter attacking, but also factor in tiredness. He's played a lot of minutes for us this season.

 

[AndersB]

Did he lose the great form he was in when playing against Spurs and City or is he mostly just very good in a counter setup?

Last few games against more defensive teams he hasnt looked that impressive.

Rashford is a streaky player, and unfortunately seems to be losing form again now. Not the best timing to say the least. Probably related to playing so much. Looks half-injured again, like before his good run.

 

[-Supreme-]

He's a player that relies heavily in a counter attacking system against teams that has space to run into.

We just have to put up with his inconsistent performances over the course of the season, he's performing at a level that greatly reflects our league position and nothing more or less.

And no...he isn't "injured". This excuse is getting very tiring every time he has a run of bad games.

 

[Andersonson]

Remember, he is 22 years old. He will have some ups and downs. Been our best attacking player this year, by far and has scored alot more than before.

This season is already better than Martials first season ( goals and assists ) and we're only half way.

He is far better than Martial and younger. Lets praise the lad for the season he has had so far and lets hope it continues.

He's gonna be very important going forward

 

[Strelok]

He is far better than Martial and younger.

I'm one of the biggest Rashford fanboys here however must disagree with you on this.

Rashford is faster and has a stronger right foot than Martial. And his character is stronger as well. That's all imo.

Meanwhile Martial is better at anything else. Him able to play well both #9 and left winger while Rashford sucks at #9 say it all imo.

 

[Andersonson]

I'm one of the biggest Rashford fanboys here however must disagree with you on this.

Rashford is faster and has a stronger right foot than Martial. And his character is stronger as well. That's all imo.

Meanwhile Martial is better at anything else. Him able to play well both #9 and left winger while Rashford sucks at #9 say it all imo.

I would rather have a forward scoring goals than somebody who's good at dribbling?

Rashford scores more and provides more assists. Thats why he's better

 

[MikeKing]

Been shit for a few games. Hopeful he can get back to it now after maybe some distractions in his life after a good spell.