I have never understood why capability is the last thing many people think of when groping for reasons why he’s been so poor. It appears to be true that he works hard in training. And if you don’t believe that he’ll tell you himself through his PR team. Even Rangnick appears to have been persuaded to overlook his form for the longest time because of his energy, effort and enthusiasm in match preparation .
But it hasn’t translated into the pitch. It seems odd for someone carrying an injury or compensating for discomfort. Wouldn’t that show just as much in training as on match day? Or it’s he especially in pain only on weekends or days when we have a midweek fixture?
There’s only so long we can avoid the capability issue. Physically he’s apparently fine. Indeed impressive in training. How does someone playing with a current injury or pain because of a past one, achieving that on the training field but look so poor on the pitch?
Pointing out his goals and assists stat from a couple of seasons back accompanied by doing this with seemingly every single post:
- at some point has to stop being used as a deflection
I think you’re onto something here, but the wrong thing. There is something that can be there for two seasons and disappear for the next two seasons, and there is something that can be present in 5v5/11v11 games in training but disappear on Saturday at kick off - and it’s not effort, it’s not discipline, it’s not altruism, and it’s certainly not capability. The one thing that can disappear in that manner, is self confidence, self efficacy. The loss of self-confidence, however, explains it perfectly. We know a player can go from key player to benchwarmer just through loss of self confidence. We know a player’s self-confidence is so situationally dependent that she can be useless for months in the league, yet suddenly shine when it is a cup game, or an opponent she’s previously scored against.
Does loss of self confidence fit Rashford’s picture? We know both Mourinho and Solskjær talked about him needing to sustain/develop his self confidence. We know he had a depressive reaction after missing that penalty. We know as McClaren pointed out - his quality drops when he/we starts playing badly in a game.
When someone plays badly when injured or straight back from injury, we don’t need further explanation. However, when someone plays badly after injury - and keeps playing badly for a year, without having lost physical ability in itself - it’s not the injury, it’s the reaction to the playing badly.
Everyone who has ever actually worked with Rashford - youth coaches, managers, coaches, players - all say the same: he’s a typecast for humility and dedication. Humility is a prerequisite for improvement and team work, but it also makes you vulnerable for one thing, and it’s not egotism, nor complacency. It’s loss of confidence.
Loss of confidence temporarily (sometimes for a whole carreer) removes capabilities you have. Looking at Rashford the last two years, does not tell us of what he might be capable. What his capasities are, is what Southgate saw that made him third on the team sheet for a long period of time, what Solskjær saw that made him a central piece of his team from his first game off. Those capabilities are not gone, but lack of confidence will neutralize them.
So what does someone who has lost confidence need to regain it?
1) To be told that he is a useless, selfish twat?
2) Support and patience?
What say the caf lay psychologists?
