Look, I don’t usually like to just go in on players but I’m sick to death of it.
Every week I have to sit and listen to every half-witted pundit on the planet tell me what an amazing, world class talent Marcus Rashford is. The rest of the team get hammered week-in, week out.
De Gea is past it, AWB can’t attack, Maguire is average/too slow, Lindelof not good enough in the air, McTominay limited on the ball, Pogba ill-disciplined, Fred limited on the ball, Martial lazy, Greenwood not scoring goals, the manager isn’t a great tactician etc...Watch our next game and listen to how our players are described and how that narrative filters into the opinions people post on social media and on the web.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I agree with some of that, however, my point is that the pundits are quick to criticise these players but only ever talk up Rashford (although Neville did go in on him last night for the only time I can remember)
Now listen to them talk about Rashford. Every single week they talk him up, they make excuses for him, they shower him with praise for any remotely half-decent piece of play and like with anything in life, this media narrative heavily influences people.
What I see when I see Rashford is a player with poor technique. A player who has some pace and some dribbling skills if allowed to run directly at opponents but otherwise, possessing limited abilities. His passing is awful and he loses it almost every time he gets on the ball, unless he’s rolling it back to Luke Shaw. He is painfully right-footed. His aerial ability is non-existent and he usually bottles headers. His movement is poor and he’s offside every time he makes a forward move. He’s selfish. He’s lazy (last week he was outrun in distance covered by Maguire). His decision-making is terrible. I could count five occasions in every game were he runs the ball aimlessly out of play or into a wall of players.
He does possess a decent strike and the way he hits it can make life hard for GKs but he only really has one type of finish (the open his body and roll it across goal), otherwise his finishing is generally wasteful. His goalscoring instinct is poor - look at the cross Greenwood flashed across yesterday...stood there watching it! Had all the time in the world to see what was going to happen and was absolutely nowhere near it!
Despite all of this, because of a lack of options, we have to sit and watch him every single week. The amazing thing is, despite everything I’ve said above I’d probably still pick him to start more often than not, which to me is a sad indictment of our options going forward.
However, what I don’t want to hear is any more excuses or “world-class talent” nonsense. The lad is mediocre at best, admittedly with the ability to do something world-class from time-to-time. We desperately need an upgrade on him if we’re to ever win anything. Greenwood has the potential to be a top forward but the rest of our attack is desperately, desperately lacking in quality.
