PR can carry Rashford up to a point but ultimately its what happens on the pitch that matters. No serious club will keep paying a player 300k a week to constantly underperform and once the club wants him out and the fans had turned their back at him then rest assured that the Celebrities will follow. No one cares of yesterday news especially one with no achievements of his own under his belt.
Marcus Rashford and his critics | Now includes fashion and hobby critics
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PR can carry Rashford up to a point but ultimately its what happens on the pitch that matters. No serious club will keep paying a player 300k a week to constantly underperform and once the club wants him out and the fans had turned their back at him then rest assured that the Celebrities will follow. No one cares of yesterday news especially one with no achievements of his own under his belt.
It’s the horseshoe theory in practice. One day you want equality and subsidized healthcare and the next one you’re asking for Rashford to get sold, not realizing that you’ve already switched to the other end of the spectrum…
The way which two academy graduates feel incapable of celebrating their goals because of certain fans is just terrible.
The fact you lead with this level of discourse is quite telling.
Agreed.
This is how I see it too. Something that always struck me as odd under ETH is that most of our shots fall to Garnacho, Bruno and Casemiro. Players known for their profligacy in front of goal. In Amorim's system, using Rashford and Hojlund down the middle could ensure that our chances fall to our most reliable finishers. I believe Gyokeres and his back up are Sporting's top two goal scorers, this indicates their way of playing certainly caters to the centre forward position.
My main reservation with the above is that they both have holes in games. Rashford's effort and physicality are questionable at the best of times. Also, he struggles with being the main man expected to deliver for the team. Apparently there was a particular incident in training where Steve Mclaren told Rashford he expects him to score the last goal of the session and Rashford complained that it was too much pressure.
Rasmus on the other hand has inconsistent technique and lacks savvy but he is young and hopefully coachable. Let's hope Amorim can make this work because I can't see either of them playing in any other position in that system.
I guess we'll find out definitively with both; can Rashford rediscover his magic and fit in Amorim's system, the one thing he will be required to produce is work-rate, which seems his biggest issue currently.
As for Hojlund; you would think Amorim's style should bring out the best in him, since he actually seems to favour a style that suits his strengths. We should find out whether it has been coaching/tactics, or if he is just not up to it.
Hahaha.
He'd get worse at Madrid. Low bar I know, but the more you are paid, the more pressure you come under, it is true of any job.
For context, he is paid more than the highest paid CEO on the FTSE100 who runs an organisation with 30,000 people. Of course there is an insane level of pressure when you earn £18m per year. If you don't perform or represent value for money you get replaced. Nobody can argue that he is anywhere near the top 20 players in the league so his pay drives the issue.
Fan criticism and fan abuse are not the same thing. Anyone spouting hatred or vitriol should not be in the stands in my opinion. There is no place for that.
For context, he is paid more than the highest paid CEO on the FTSE100 who runs an organisation with 30,000 people. Of course there is an insane level of pressure when you earn £18m per year. If you don't perform or represent value for money you get replaced. Nobody can argue that he is anywhere near the top 20 players in the league so his pay drives the issue.
Fan criticism and fan abuse are not the same thing. Anyone spouting hatred or vitriol should not be in the stands in my opinion. There is no place for that.
Last season most shots fell to Rashford, I guess he changed something this season to play him deeper.
ten Hag would be asking, like Jose did, for him to drop back and help with the defence, which is not his forte.
If Amorim can find a way to get Rashford purring without compromising our overall defensive shape, it really could work out.
Either way, it really is last chance saloon for Marcus. I feel for the guy because there is quite an agenda against him, but, well, there it is.
Only way to shut out the noise is to perform consistently.
Rashford hat one problem with ETH, he should be the man leading the counter and ETHs system required him to defend. So he was too deep to lead the counter, but not deep enough to defend. So Rashford was lost too often.
His shot volume has been on the wane since Ten Hag's first season. I think there was a game against Brighton early last term where Rashford had about 9 great chances and didn't convert. Since then, it's felt like he was played ever wider and deeper, rarely getting on the end of things. Obviously that culminated in his role at the start of this season, where he didn't have a shot on goal for a silly number of matches.
Confidant
Marcus Rashford ate my hamster.
Im actually fed up with Rashford at this point. He seems to be a talking point in everything around Manchester United.
I couldn't care less about his wages, his private life or his appearance.
If you are a striker for Manchester United and you're not scoring 20 goals a season, you're not good enough.
I can't be the only one who saw half the thread title on the main page and assumed some dimwit couldn't spell confident.
Then realised...ahhh
I’ll confide in you: I’m confident most people don’t understand it’s a confidant speaking with confidence on the matter.
Of course it is. The criticism he's had for playing some part in feeding children from our own fecking fanbase is absurd.
Its clear that many people do though.
And maybe he isn't good enough. My point is that him potentially not being good enough doesn't mean, he doesn't care or isn't trying.
He's been better this season, but there have been points over the last 2 seasons where it looked like he really didn't care.
It's a shame because i really like him as a player and a person.
When is the next PR article about him working hard even when international break coming out.
His work rate is there for all to see
There is alot of evidence showing he doesn't care or isn't trying...
The way I see football is that it is a team game, so if you want to win as a team, you play as a team.
So when someone plays a misplaced pass or you take a heavy touch or lose the ball, you go and win it back, or at least try.
I have seen numerous times this season, his application isn't there, an example is the Spurs game, the pass to him, he didn't attempt a 50/50 and Spurs CB scored.
All he has to do is challenge, makes it hard for the defender to get the ball easily.
Run back with the full back so they are not 2 v 1 against the full back.
It doesnt take skill to be good off the ball, it requires application.
This is amazing, for years a portion of the fanbase was calling out his shortcomings in play and attitude, you weren't able to see these shortcomings and defended him regardless. Once all these shortcomings became so apparent that they can't be denied by anyone watching him play they are now true. However, it's not that his critics were all right, no, you were right all along, he was great until recently, and on a dime became shite. I guess it's just a bizarre coincidence than that these "broken clock" types who had been calling out these very deficiencies weren't correct at the time, they were just randomly leveling complaints at Rashford, and those complaints just randomly became the exact traits of his game and attitude that have now become an issue. It's defintely not that other people were able to see something before you and call it out.
So, let's just be clear, at all times simonhch was correct in his views, it's just everyone else lucked into their views becoming correct at some point, through the passage of time. Got it.
And he shouldn't be a squad player, you can't have a 350k a week squad player. And more importantly, his attitude needs to be removed from the dressing to allow this club to move forward.
Rashford reminds me a bit of Nani. When on form they are undisputed first teamers (Rashford more then Nani). When they are not on form they struggle to justify a place on the bench (Rashford takes the biscuit again). Both lacked the mix needed to be a regular first team player. In Nani's case it was a matter of work rate and decision making. He wouldn't track back when he should or he would try and dribble past players when he shouldn't. In Rashford's case it was all of that + his weak character. Manchester United first team players come in all shapes and sizes. Some are incredibly talented (Scholes, Ronaldo, Giggs) and others where, well, Gary Neville and Steve Bruce. What's unforgivable is someone who let his head hung low when things simply aren't going well for him. Gaz was reduced to smithereens by Edmundo and Stam struggled big time against Inzaghi. Yet they didn't let that effect them. It takes so little to break Rashford's morale down which is bad news when you're the highest paid player at the most scrutinized club in the world.
To play for United, or other clubs like Madrid or Barcelona, you need to be made of sterner stuff. The attention and pressure is like nothing else. I wouldn't know how handle millions of people reviewing my work every weak and abusing me for my mistakes on social media. There're plenty of extremely talented players that'll never make it at top clubs because it's so difficult. Amorim is about to find out himself, over 100 000 people were tracking his fecking flight. It's like nothing else. Rashford let's everything gets to him and loses confidence as quickly as he gets it.
The discussion about his mental strentgh is interesting. Actually I find his so called lack of mental strength a bit confusing...
I mean we are talking about a guy who effortelessly slotted home a Penalty kick for England at a World Cup Penalty Shootout at the age of 20....
And then went on to score a last minute penalty against PSG in a CL Knockout game.
I mean you can not get much more pressure than that and he handeled it with impressive maturity that time.
I feel that its not really his mental strength that is the Problem. I think he has lost the love and fire for the game itselfe somewhere down the route. And his bodylanguage tells it.
I mean we are talking about a guy who effortelessly slotted home a Penalty kick for England at a World Cup Penalty Shootout at the age of 20....
And then went on to score a last minute penalty against PSG in a CL Knockout game.
I mean you can not get much more pressure than that and he handeled it with impressive maturity that time.
I feel that its not really his mental strength that is the Problem. I think he has lost the love and fire for the game itselfe somewhere down the route. And his bodylanguage tells it.
Which indicates he has a mental issue of some kind
Not really. Lot of people go to work every morning, without much love for the work. Its a job. They do it half heartedly and take the full pay.
True but they probably never enjoyed it in the first place, Rashford clearly did in his early days so something has changed
You made a number of assumptions that undermine your rant, chief among them that I was unable to see his short comings. No one said that. I distinctly said they were premature. Something which I stand behind. Just because he hasn’t developed as hoped, doesn’t mean those critiques were justified; because they happen with almost every young player and this fan base. Over hyped, then torn to shreds…..
Anyone could clearly see that he had deficiencies in his game, but when he was getting these criticisms at 22 and 23, it was not unreasonable then to say that it was ridiculous to surmise he would never be good enough. Which many people were doing. The folly of this was underlined in 2 of the following 4 seasons where he was our best player and carried our attack, netting 30 goals in one of them from the left wing. The same group that tore him to shreds, either became completely quiet or jumped aboard the hype train. Then he had a poor season, and they reverted to type “I said all along he was shite”.
The reality is that people are far too quick to anoint or write off players in their early twenties. And that includes Rashford. Now, at 27, the criticisms of his lack of consistency, and lack of maturity is his game are extremely valid. But when he was banging in 30 goals at 25, from a wide position, the general consensus was that here was a player that had finally matured and fulfilled his promise. For whatever reason, he’s had a dramatic fall off since then; whether it’s attitude, confidence, work ethic, I don’t know, but the results are all too apparent. But to give credit to those calling him shit at 22/23, not only defies the logic of what we saw - and was said just 18 months later - but also gives credence to trend of writing players off in their early twenties. Something which will almost always be a really stupid thing to do.
For me, Rashford followed a fairly normal development path through 25, with ups and downs. The sort you often expect with any player, except the very exceptional few. At 26, last season, he had a really poor campaign, which followed a brilliant one; and our inability to score goals as a result, showed just how much he had carried our attack the season prior. He really needed to hit the ground running this season, because he’s now supposed to be in his prime and be a reliable and consistent performer; but he’s probably the most inconsistent of all our forwards. Hence, I think the platform really opens up this year to say he’s on the chopping block. At his age, wages etc., we are well within our rights to expect a lot more from him. Gone are the days when you can say he’s still learning his craft.
To draw some parallels with why I have always preached patience, look at a player like Salah. Seems like he’s been around forever. At 23, Rashford was a key player of the Manchester United team, with massive expectations on his shoulders. At the same age Salah was bouncing from one loan move (Fiorentina) to another (Roma). He signed for Liverpool at 25, as a player Klopp reportedly didn’t even want. And tore it up, much like Rashford tore it up at 25. Salah of course went on to get better and better, and Rashford has dipped off dramatically. But those years up to 23/24 Salah was a very inconsistent player, who moved around a lot, not really having a breakthrough season until the year before he moved to Liverpool. Rashford, meanwhile, broke through to the United first team as a teenager, playing a ton of games, and shock, horror, over the years between 18 and 24, had a lot of ups and downs. As almost all players do.
Mainoo is the best player this is likely to happen to. He’s a huge talent. He has that “it” factor. But he’s really young. I don’t think he’ll be a truly dominating, consistent performer for another 3 to 4 seasons, and I can almost guarantee he’ll have some poor runs of form on the next 2-3 years as he continues to learn his craft. In those periods, he’ll be written off by many. Again, I can almost guarantee it. People just lack a holistic vision of player development. They chuck around labels like “generational talent” all too often, and one good season often leads to the anointing of saviour like status, which just creates unreasonable expectations and eventual vitriol when dips in form occur.
It’s a huge shame for us, when players like Rashford, who have shown over sustained periods, that they are top level talents, fail to make the grade. These are home grown players that are the heartbeat of the club. I don’t think there’s anything contradictory about extending patience and a long term view on player development through the age of 24/25, only to then shift perspectives if those players fail to kick on, or regress as the pass the 25/26 yr old mark. In fact, it seems entirely sensible to me. There are too many examples of players who were seen as “not good enough” or not consistent enough at 23, who went on to be world beaters at 26/27.
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There's absolutely no way Ferguson would still have him at the club. That's as close to an absolute certainty as you could possibly get. Moping, flailing his arms around, not tracking back, not producing anything, pulling out of every 50/50. Throw in all the off-field stuff too and if you could invent a player from scratch that would tick all the criteria of someone that Ferguson would bounce from the club at the earliest opportunity if he was still the manager, you'd be inventing someone who was pretty damn identical to the player Marcus Rashford has been these last couple of years.
The fact he's still here and a sizable chunk of the fanbase are still on the "Let's give him another chance under a new manager to see if he can be bothered to turn up" bandwagon, explains our decline more succinctly than anything else
The fact he's still here and a sizable chunk of the fanbase are still on the "Let's give him another chance under a new manager to see if he can be bothered to turn up" bandwagon, explains our decline more succinctly than anything else
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His own coach, 2 years ago:
And for the latter, it is highly likely that he will be paying close attention to Rashford's body language and attitude during pre-season. The former England manager was unimpressed with the academy graduate after his performance in United's slender 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the FA Cup third-round back in January.
"I hate that attitude in a player," McClaren told talkSPORT, reflecting on Rashford's showing against Steven Gerrard's side. "Body language is so, so important and that was the criticism of United players in the last few weeks, but Rashford has probably had this problem throughout his career in terms of questioning his attitude.
"He gets deterred too easily and doesn't fight through bad moments. He doesn't stay in the game. If he's not having a good game, he's not having a good game.
"If he's not having a good first half, he'll never have a good second half. I just look at him and think that boy needs help, off the field and through the manager."
2024:
Marcus Rashford shocked Steve McClaren with an irked reaction to his coaching methods before he left Manchester United to take charge of Jamaica, according to reports. The 26-year-old faces a critical season after suffering a dismal 2023/24 campaign, with competition among Erik ten Hag's winger as strong as it has been for a while.
According to Sky Sports, the United No. 10 took issue with McClaren's attempts at encouragement during a five-a-side match during training at Carrington.
The former England manager is claimed to have told Rashford that he was the player to score the winning goal before being shut down for putting him under too much pressure.
The report adds that McClaren was left stunned by the reaction, having hoped that his comments would inspire as they had done with world-class strikers he has previously worked with.
You can insult him or compliment him, he will take it all to heart regardless
He put away two penalties in high pressure situations.
While that is indeed good, it's still just a penalty. If you have a decent shot on you, you would probably be able to do the same. Even players with very low self esteem will be able to put away a penalty.
Penalties are also very much based on luck. Many keepers will decide before the penalty is taken which way to dive. So that is very much down to luck.
You need much more data than a couple of high pressure penalties to properly gauge someone's mentality.
Reality is when he scored 30 the team was built for him to counter attack, to get the goals, so of course he scored the most, but playing counter attacking football won't get you to the top.
We changed our football and his lack of talent was clear. He has a deficiency of talent, and now he's starting to get slower he has next to nothing else to offer.
Players like Rashford are the opposite of the heart of the club, they are the ones who ruin it. He's the most lazy player I ever remember. He's a disgrace, he does nothing but insult United and bring it down. He has no respect for the club, and any other top club would have gotten rid of him as soon as it showed.
This thread is pretty negative, and for good reasons.
But I have a feeling that Amorim is going to get the best out of Rashford. It may not happen overnight, but i can see it happening.
It really is do it die time for him.
But I have a feeling that Amorim is going to get the best out of Rashford. It may not happen overnight, but i can see it happening.
It really is do it die time for him.
It's insane to hear those stories about someone at that level and yet, I'm not even slightly surprised.
You see it quite a bit in underage football that kids who lack confidence and belief look like they're not trying. Most of them grow out of it with a bit of maturity by about 12 though!
How a kid with such a clear lack of mental strength made it to that level as a professional footballer is really crazy. His lack of effort is such a massive outlier and really limits the tactical approach coaches can implement, especially in today's style of football.
It will take a coach being strong enough to bench a player the club is paying £300K a week to turn things around. We'll see if Amorim is strong enough to do it.
Rashford has had just one standout season during his decade long career with United and that was when he seemed motivated by the prospect of securing a new bumper contract. I believe many United fans are growing frustrated with him and might not be too upset if the club decided to part ways. The guy earns £350K/ week and has scored 1 PL goal in 11 games this season.
Hes a lost cause and the sooner we move on from him, the better off we are.
Any manager that attempts to rehabilitate him will only end up risking their own career with us.
Any manager that attempts to rehabilitate him will only end up risking their own career with us.
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