[Pogue Mahone]

Have you read the title of the thread?

Rashford did play lazy, and has done far too much throughout his career. You either don't understand there's a big distinction between missed chances, unsuccessful dribbles or bad passes, and simply not putting in the requisite effort, or you don't want to. I can live with the latter as it happens to every player, but there's no excuse for the former.

This isn't an opinion. Watch the match. He was lazy and uninterested and that's a fact.

There was incident in the second half where carried the ball the along the left touchline quite deep into our half under pressure and passed inside to Luke Shaw who had a heavy touch (another player who looked miles away from match sharpness) straight to a Wolves player that charged into the wide open space behind Shaw, attacking the edge of our box basically unchallenged. The space that Rashford was running towards when he passed the ball. Rashford just stood still and watched. The commentator on Sky said something like "and Rashford has given up!". It was so weird. Staring straight at an incredibly dangerous situation and simply couldn't be arsed to try and help out. He's a bit of an enigma. I don't understand how someone who is obviously very emotionally invested in the club so often looks like he's finding playing for us a bit too much like hard work.

 

[Big Ray]

Rashford didn't stand a chance last night...c'mon you can criticise a CF when the 10 men behind him are all having a bad game.

He could at least show a bit of fight! He has such a soft centre and his unwillingness for hard graft or putting his body on the line is there for all to see. What a player he would be if he had the mentality of Martinez.

 

[Member 58925]

There was incident in the second half where carried the ball the along the left touchline quite deep into our half under pressure and passed inside to Luke Shaw who had a heavy touch (another player who looked miles away from match sharpness) straight to a Wolves player that charged into the wide open space behind Shaw, attacking the edge of our box basically unchallenged. The space that Rashford was running towards when he passed the ball. Rashford just stood still and watched. The commentator on Sky said something like "and Rashford has given up!". It was so weird. Staring straight at an incredibly dangerous situation and simply couldn't be arsed to try and help out. He's a bit of an enigma. I don't understand how someone who is obviously very emotionally invested in the club so often looks like he's finding playing for us a bit too much like hard work.

And his game is a lot more multi-faceted than he gets credit for, especially the passing. On his first shot on goal in the first half he hand an easy pullback to a wide open player (Mount or Bruno if iirc) and completely ignored them. If he wasn't so talented it would be less maddening.

 

[Jacob]

He's very one dimensional and predictable isn't he?

 

[m1tch]

If he's anything like me then his laziness is linked to a frustration thing. I.e., he throws the towel in if either those around him aren't performing or he's not performing well enough himself.

Ridiculous given he's a professional sportsman but maybe it's a difficult mentality trait to fix. He doesn't come across as someone that enjoys playing that much, so it's no surprise that his head drops easily and thereafter his workrate.

 

[Howl]

And his game is a lot more multi-faceted than he gets credit for, especially the passing. On his first shot on goal in the first half he hand an easy pullback to a wide open player (Mount or Bruno if iirc) and completely ignored them. If he wasn't so talented it would be less maddening.

His run for that was brutal as well. If it's the chance I think your talking about I was so annoyed watching him run directly in front of Antony instead of dragging a defender or doing anything useful. He just kept running directly in front of Antony which was maddening. By the time he made an actual run he had to go to far wide which always made him scoring a slim possibility. He is very talented but a part of me can't shake the feeling that he will be one of those players that gets sold in a couple of years.

 

[stw2022]

It needs to be asked why playing a left sided foward in a central position renders him incapable of putting in the effort. If Luke Shaw was played up front and he wasn't putting in a shift i wouldn't accept that. Rashford is literally playing 10 yards away from where he normally would. And there was rotation too where he was played wider for various parts of the game.

 

[RedStarUnited]

The criticism is on here is so overboard, the whole team was extremely poor. To start labelling him lazy is ridiculous and every one is basing it on one play in the game.

VS Man City in the final



August 2022



Oct 2022

 

[RedStarUnited]

There was incident in the second half where carried the ball the along the left touchline quite deep into our half under pressure and passed inside to Luke Shaw who had a heavy touch (another player who looked miles away from match sharpness) straight to a Wolves player that charged into the wide open space behind Shaw, attacking the edge of our box basically unchallenged. The space that Rashford was running towards when he passed the ball. Rashford just stood still and watched. The commentator on Sky said something like "and Rashford has given up!". It was so weird. Staring straight at an incredibly dangerous situation and simply couldn't be arsed to try and help out. He's a bit of an enigma. I don't understand how someone who is obviously very emotionally invested in the club so often looks like he's finding playing for us a bit too much like hard work.

Look where is on the pitch too, The apologist in here will tell you "but he isn't a striker"

If he wasnt British and an academy player, he would be getting killed for his laziness.

Ironic, for a guy who Jose Mourinho trusted when he first came because he thought Marcus worked much harder defensively than Martial did.

 

[stw2022]

Look where is on the pitch too, The apologist in here will tell you "but he isn't a striker"

If he wasnt British and an academy player, he would be getting killed for his laziness.

Ironic, for a guy who Jose Mourinho trusted when he first came because he thought Marcus worked much harder defensively than Martial did.

He was awful because he wasn't playing on his preferred blade of grass.

 

[Frank White]

Look where is on the pitch too, The apologist in here will tell you "but he isn't a striker"

If he wasnt British and an academy player, he would be getting killed for his laziness.

Ironic, for a guy who Jose Mourinho trusted when he first came because he thought Marcus worked much harder defensively than Martial did.

Is he not getting pelters for being lazy? Nearly every comment for the last few pages has been about the effort levels so what are you talking about?

 

[stw2022]

Is he not getting pelters for being lazy? Nearly every comment for the last few pages has been about the effort levels so what are you talking about?

Those clips posted above were from last season. Go back and read the murders we had in his performance thread last season were anyone to suggest he was basic, lazy and not very good.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Is he not getting pelters for being lazy? Nearly every comment for the last few pages has been about the effort levels so what are you talking about?

Well here you go mate...

The criticism is on here is so overboard, the whole team was extremely poor. To start labelling him lazy is ridiculous and every one is basing it on one play in the game.

And I meant in media not by fans. His laziness goes generally unspoken of in the media.

 

[Lecland07]

VS Man City in the final



August 2022



Oct 2022

Where is the pressing from the other players? In a couple of those he does move forward, but nobody else blocks off the passing options. It doesn't work unless it is done as a team because they will always have a passing route.

 

[TMDaines]

VS Man City in the final



August 2022



Oct 2022

These are very weird examples. Pressing isn’t about a single member of a team charging off as a lone rabid dog, vacating the relevant passing lanes.

 

[Frank White]

Well here you go mate...



And I meant in media not by fans. His laziness goes generally unspoken of in the media.

And that would be why I used the word nearly.... about 95% of the comments are about the lack of effort. Genuine question do you follow these accounts you post clips from?

 

[RedStarUnited]

Where is the pressing from the other players? In a couple of those he does move forward, but nobody else blocks off the passing options. It doesn't work unless it is done as a team because they will always have a passing route.

If thats what you think is enough then I guess I cant argue with you.

And that would be why I used the word nearly.... about 95% of the comments are about the lack of effort. Genuine question do you follow these accounts you post clips from?

No I dont, twitter has a search functionality.

Also, I ended that post with "And I meant in media not by fans. His laziness goes generally unspoken of in the media." but offcourse you ignored that.

 

[Frank White]

If thats what you think is enough then I guess I cant argue with you.



No I dont, twitter has a search functionality.

Also, I ended that post with "And I meant in media not by fans. His laziness goes generally unspoken of in the media." but offcourse you ignored that.

It does but you've posted that Martien guy multiple times now. And didn't ignore just have nothing to add to that statement and can't do anything about it.

 

[Lecland07]

If thats what you think is enough then I guess I cant argue with you.



No I dont, twitter has a search functionality.

Also, I ended that post with "And I meant in media not by fans. His laziness goes generally unspoken of in the media." but offcourse you ignored that.

Even if he ran harder, he would just get criticised for being a headless chicken as the press will never work without teamwork.

City players don't press at full pelt all the time. They do actually run a lot like Rashford in some of those clips, but the team has a whole presses players all over the pitch, making it difficult for the one with the ball to escape. Sprinting in your own is not the answer.

What he did in some of those is fine if other players also attempted to cut off passing lanes, but it doesn't happen.

Pressing is just not drilled into this team, and that is why none of our players ever look great at pressing. I think the attackers (particularly striker position) stand out the most as there is usually a large space where they stick out more.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

This isn't an opinion. Watch the match. He was lazy and uninterested and that's a fact.

Bit like your analysis.

 

[TMDaines]

The one position that was set up to fail last night was the most advanced forward in the team, regardless of whether they were playing from inside left or central. Not sure how Rashford is getting a character assassination already.

1. Wolves defended deep. We had minimal chances to get in behind. Deep blocks are effective.
2. Our two wingers either side of the centre forward consistently exhibit poor decision making and are players who look to score rather than create. Neither Antony or Garnacho are players who make their teammates better. They make stuff happen, but largely on their own. This is partly why Garnacho is so much better as a sub, as he can take advantage of tired defenders on his tod. What he can’t do is play a support role. Antony just shoots all the fecking time.
3. Finally, we couldn’t progress the ball through midfield as there was a chasm between our back line and our advanced midfielders. The balance of the team was all wrong, and it is no wonder that all five of our most attacking players are deemed to have had bad games. We struggled to maintain a foothold in the final third, let alone create chances. Even the counterattacks fell apart before the final ball. Bruno and Mount saw the ball so little in opportunistic positions to create chances.

Not sure what anyone would expect of any pacey striker whose game is running behind the defence. None would have had a chance last night with that compact opposition, combined with our dysfunctional approach. We literally watch the best striker in the world, Haaland, have the same non-impact on a match when his team cannot function: cut his supply off and you wonder what the fuss is. Easier said than done with City though.

Rashford’s job isn’t to drop deep, searching for the ball and getting in the way of aspects of the game that are not his strength. That’s half the problem with Ronaldo in latter years as a centre forward. He refuses to recognise his limitations and actively makes his teams worse.

 

[CG1010]

My intuition is he is burdened by the weight of expectations to carry the entire attack on his shoulders. Yesterday he felt completely zoned out and seemed more lively/relieved once Varane had scored. He desperately needs a partner to share the goal scoring burden. Hojlund/Antony/Bruno need to step up.

 

[vanrooney]

it was one game and he wasnt exceptional bad. lets give the team say 5 games to look how they are doing. imo eth prepares the team quite hard in pre season to go the full distance, risking a slow start. like saf did. wolves are also no walkovers. a hard pressing team that isnt easy to break down. lets see how we fare against tottenham away where we should get more chances to break. yes we were not good and especially the passing game was not accurate enough, but that isnt totally unusual so early in the season

 

[Member 58925]

Bit like your analysis.

I’ve actually added plenty to it in this thread replying to posters that warrant the effort and aren’t just here to argue.

 

[Marcelinho87]

Worst player on the pitch yesterday.

 

[FerociousCorgis]

both bruno and rash are such weird players. When they are great they are great, but they can both look like absolute trash at times. Prob more a fan of bruno than rashford tbh. Feel like rashford has been a bit lazier out there for a while now, and has become pretty one dimensional. If you want someone to just get the ball, cut in, and try and shoot he is prob a good bet. Other than that feel like he struggles quite a bit and hasnt really kicked on like he should be for our supposed star. Stats will prob get there by the end of the season but dont think he will do anything to help us control games more

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

I’ve actually added plenty to it in this thread replying to posters that warrant the effort and aren’t just here to argue.

I’ve not said Rashford is blameless, in fact I’ve admitted he was poor but you on the other hand have absolved Garnacho & Antony of any fault in yesterdays no.9 performance in spite of them providing next to no service.

You chose to interact with my initial post to simply pile further onto Rashford, after a performance like yesterday you can’t simply look at that striking performer in isolation, it’s symptomatic of what happens everytime he is shoehorned up top. Rashford is not a good no.9 but if he played the 9 with a winger as good as he is an 11, I think he’d look better simply by the fact there’d be someone else for the opposition to look after.

Labelling him ‘lazy & uninterested’ are the exact braindead comments we saw in 21/22. He’s not allowed to simply play poorly, he has to be <insert label here>. He wasn’t good yesterday but calling him ‘lazy’ after each poor performance adds nothing. I’ve seen him run less & score more than he did last night.

 

[mintyred]

There was incident in the second half where carried the ball the along the left touchline quite deep into our half under pressure and passed inside to Luke Shaw who had a heavy touch (another player who looked miles away from match sharpness) straight to a Wolves player that charged into the wide open space behind Shaw, attacking the edge of our box basically unchallenged. The space that Rashford was running towards when he passed the ball. Rashford just stood still and watched. The commentator on Sky said something like "and Rashford has given up!". It was so weird. Staring straight at an incredibly dangerous situation and simply couldn't be arsed to try and help out. He's a bit of an enigma. I don't understand how someone who is obviously very emotionally invested in the club so often looks like he's finding playing for us a bit too much like hard work.

I was just coming here to say this, it was such a weird moment and hopefully, something the manager speaks to him about. He gives up on tracking back a lot, I remember seeing Ronaldo tracking back in frustration on his behalf on occasion.

I honestly wish we had cashed in on this guy when he was in form rather than given him a contract. He only performs for a quarter of a season and that's all people remember. He's got all the attributes to be a great player except the mentality. Talent only gets you so far, then it's down to your mindset and he just doesn't have a top mentality.

 

[Nonameisknown]

Annoying to see people still say he was played out of position. Did that stop him from chasing lose balls which where also due to his poor decision making? He drops his head and starts strolling around.

 

[TMDaines]

Newbies in rare form here…

 

[Doracle]

Look where is on the pitch too, The apologist in here will tell you "but he isn't a striker"

If he wasnt British and an academy player, he would be getting killed for his laziness.

Ironic, for a guy who Jose Mourinho trusted when he first came because he thought Marcus worked much harder defensively than Martial did.

I think he should do more work than he does generally but this isn’t one to really criticise him for. He starts moving forwards again and when Shaw takes a bad touch it means he is essentially moving in the wrong direction and several yards away from the man who receives the ball. Very little point in him trying to chase back there.

 

[RedOrange]

Even if he ran harder, he would just get criticised for being a headless chicken as the press will never work without teamwork.

City players don't press at full pelt all the time.

City and Liverpool don't press all the time, but when they press they do it at full pelt. Have a look at the urgency with which they run at the ball carrier in these videos.

 

[stw2022]

None of these are new criticisms. They're observed assessments based on a very, very long period of time by a large number of fans.

People genuinely aren't asking for the world. It's the whole "loves the club, bleeds red" juxtapositioned with the absurdity of "of course he didn't put in a shift, he was played slightly out of position"


His workrate as a player nosedived about three years ago and hasn't recovered. I think the adulation went to his head, personally and be lost that drive. He instead began to saunter around the pitch like Cantona at his mercurial peak; as if he'd made it and he just needed the rest of the team to catch up. This is why Ferguson used to talk about keeping young player's feet on the ground as this is what happens if you don't.

Every other player on the pitch will work harder than Rashford most weeks of the season. And yes that includes players who miraculously don't appear to have playing slightly out of position an insurmountable obstacle to running.

"I would have jumped for the header but I'm usually a left-sided centre back, but in this game I'm playing right-sided centre-back so it's understandable"

I don't get the disconnect between people who will peddle these excuses for him yet also claim he's somehow the heart, soul and epitome of Manchester United. He's the absolute furthest thing from it.

Boyhood club buuuut.... that's not normally the same patch of grass he likes to play on so Marcus isn't going to be feeling up to chasing back or closing down, and challenges for arial balls will be limited tonight. Marcus feels that he'd be more appreciated playing on the left so just to give you the heads-up he will be skulking around the pitch for large periods of the game.

 

[kouroux]

And his game is a lot more multi-faceted than he gets credit for, especially the passing. On his first shot on goal in the first half he hand an easy pullback to a wide open player (Mount or Bruno if iirc) and completely ignored them. If he wasn't so talented it would be less maddening.

This moment drove me fecking mad, the amount of space that was there for a pass and possibly an easy chance... I don't understand if it's pure selfishness and just lack of vision. Either way, our players frequently miss out on easy passing lanes for whatever reasons

 

[Gordon S]

None of these are new criticisms. They're observed assessments based on a very, very long period of time by a large number of fans.

People genuinely aren't asking for the world. It's the whole "loves the club, bleeds red" juxtapositioned with the absurdity of "of course he didn't put in a shift, he was played slightly out of position"


His workrate as a player nosedived about three years ago and hasn't recovered. I think the adulation went to his head, personally and be lost that drive. He instead began to saunter around the pitch like Cantona at his mercurial peak; as if he'd made it and he just needed the rest of the team to catch up. This is why Ferguson used to talk about keeping young player's feet on the ground as this is what happens if you don't.

Every other player on the pitch will work harder than Rashford most weeks of the season. And yes that includes players who miraculously don't appear to have playing slightly out of position an insurmountable obstacle to running.

"I would have jumped for the header but I'm usually a left-sided centre back, but in this game I'm playing right-sided centre-back so it's understandable"

I don't get the disconnect between people who will peddle these excuses for him yet also claim he's somehow the heart, soul and epitome of Manchester United. He's the absolute furthest thing from it.

Boyhood club buuuut.... that's not normally the same patch of grass he likes to play on so Marcus isn't going to be feeling up to chasing back or closing down, and challenges for arial balls will be limited tonight. Marcus feels that he'd be more appreciated playing on the left so just to give you the heads-up he will be skulking around the pitch for large periods of the game.

Somebody actually said that?

 

[Ludens the Red]

Look where is on the pitch too, The apologist in here will tell you "but he isn't a striker"

If he wasnt British and an academy player, he would be getting killed for his laziness.

Ironic, for a guy who Jose Mourinho trusted when he first came because he thought Marcus worked much harder defensively than Martial did.

What amazes me is he never ever gets called on it by pundits. The same pundits who were obsessed with Ronaldos lack of pressing. They never bat an eyelid or pick out a clip of this guys atrocious workrate at times.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Worst player on the pitch yesterday.

Got the new contract though. That's enough

 

[Escobar]

Work rate and committment seemed to be an issue. He has these phases where he looks not really in ot, almost absent. He seriously needs to up his game and mentality

 

[Joga Bonito]

Ironic, for a guy who Jose Mourinho trusted when he first came because he thought Marcus worked much harder defensively than Martial did.

I guess this is one of the reasons why it's hard for many United fans to look past his lack of work rate. When he first burst onto the scene, he was really hard working and dynamic, both on the ball and off it. The sudden steep decline in his defensive game is glaring and puzzling. Was really hoping that ETH becoming our manager would help reinvigorate this aspect of his game.

Would be interesting to see how Rashford's defensive game evolved over the years.

 

[stw2022]

What amazes me is he never ever gets called on it by pundits. The same pundits who were obsessed with Ronaldos lack of pressing. They never bat an eyelid or pick out a clip of this guys atrocious workrate at times.

PR works. Yeah might be lazy, but he feeds kids. Workrate might be suspect but sometime ago a ghost writer wrote his autobiography where it was revealed he didn't always eat Heinze-brand baked beans as a child because of the price.

I think he's probably football's greatest PR success story in many years.