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2020-21 Performances


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5.7 Season Average Rating
Appearances
57
Goals
21
Assists
11
Yellow cards
4
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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.

Good summary of his skill set.
 
It sure did. Quite amazing how consistently shit he was for the whole 90 mins

He’s been as bad for large chunks of many of the games he’s played, but it’s overlooked, or masked because he’s popped up and been positive for periods of those same games. This was just the worst so far.
There have been games this and last season where he’s scored, provided an assist, made effective passes etc, getting plaudits for it, but in the same matches he’s also been a walking liability for anything from part of, to much of the 90 mins.

The apologists bring up his stats.
His goal stats this season, create a false impression and mask the fact that in the PL he’s scored just 9 goals in 27 PL games, 5 of which came in 4 games during a good spell in December.
Since then, his form has fallen off a cliff and he’s scored just 2 goals in the 12 PL matches since the start of 2021 and one of those was in the 9-0 rout of Southampton, where nearly everyone got a goal.
Add in all competitions since the 1st Jan and he’s scored 4 in 18 games.
 
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For me that was the worst he has played in a United shirt. He sometimes blows hot and cold but that was absolute rubbish and should have been hooked after 55min.

Apparently he and Maguire had a go at each other, which of course im happy with, however im intrigued as to what Marcus actually said to Harry as it started with a 'k' and have no idea what that word was.
 
Rashford has been dogshit the last couple of months....

Martial has been dogshit ALL season.
Couldn't agree more, they have both been poor. Doesn't change the fact that Martial is so much better to watch than Rashford for me. I think its been clear since they both broke through that Martial is operating with a higher level of talent, he just doesn't have the correct mentality to match. Watching Rashford strutting around the pitch, I'm beginning to think the same about him.
 
All our attackers are visibly out of form, it's not just Rashford, he is a great player but no one up top seems to be showing any sort of form which is very annoying as usually one will be out of form and the others will cover, what's concerning to me is why they have all suddenly fallen out of form this year?
 
Had high hopes he'd become a worldie but I don't think he's at that level, he's nearly there but just a tier bellow for me.

What worries me is he never get's mentioned as a player we need to improve upon, yet he's one of most inconsistent performers we have.
 
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.

I totally agree with this, but it’s only the half of it. You missed out his almost total lack of effort off the ball. No interest or positive intent to press opponents, poor to non-existent closing down, fails to track back and when he does he’s slow and shows no urgency or real intent to help out.
Poor movement and positioning off the ball, slows down or kills off attacks by not making the moves or runs that capitalise on Shaw’s (or Telles’) forward runs. Crowding out his own team mates by being in the wrong place and disrupting play, no apparent desire or sense of urgency, a total lack of controlled aggression when needed.....the list goes on.

I just can’t see this just being a coaching issue. There are too many fundamental flaws with this lad.
 
Needs to work way harder on the field. It has been an ongoing issue this season. It is very easy to ignore when he’s not the only one that is guilty of such antics, but lately his attitude is nowhere near good enough. Should be benched for James right now, to fight for his place, but just like Bruno, he never won’t, poor management that.

Also, his decision-making seems so poor at the moment that it makes his low work ethic look even worse.

Bruno might be in poor form atm, but unlike Rashford you cant fault his effort.

Problem is right now, who the feck do we replace him with? Martial has been equally poor and lazy, Greenwood is also in poor form and James is pretty limited
 
Shocked he didn’t get replaced around the hour mark. Just wasn’t happening again for him. The thing this year with Rashford in my opinion is his overall game has dropped massively but he still will produce a bit of magic and get a goal. But the longer it’s gone on and then the lack of goals is very worrisome.

I’m not sure what others think but I want to see him play 10 yards further forward. Start receiving the ball much higher up the pitch and use his speed to get in behind. Every time he gets the ball recently he’s either passing back to Shaw or that deep that he’s got two players marking him. Looks like he can’t be arsed also which is also something to really worry about.

Just hope this is a blip but you can tell the difference when Rashford and Martial were on it after the restart. We looked fast, creative and massively dangerous. Now their play has fallen off a cliff we look toothless and predictable. Massive difference!!!
 
not a wide player
What is he then? because he certainly isn't a striker.

He has all the skillset needed to be a good winger, but he hasn't got a clue how to play the position correctly. Our coaches have done a shocking job with him and are allowing his standards to reach levels not even Memphis dropped to.
 
What annoys me most about all of this is that we've just kept three clean sheets in a row, two of them away from home, and yet all I hear is how the midfield don't pass forwards enough and the full backs aren't good attackers and therefore we are not creating enough chances.

I'm sorry but despite us posting a low xG last night, we still created three very, very presentable chance. A 'chance' doesn't have to be someone missing a one vs one to count as a 'chance'.

1. Shaw low cross into Rashford, good touch, went for the wrong finish with the near-post whip and missed the target. I'll call this a half-chance in fairness.

2. Greenwood flashes the ball right across the face of the goal, Rashford just watching. Now, often a ball can be flashed across and you can excuse the attackers for not quite being up with play but there are no excuses on this occasion. Greenwood got a yard on the full-back and Rashford had a good couple of seconds to react and get across the face but stood there statuesque. This for me is one of the failings of xG...that was actually a golden chance to score but isn't reflected in the stats.

3. Shaw crosses to Dan James who misses free header from 8 yards out. Again, I don't know what the xG was on this 'effort' but I imagine it would be low. Again though, that's down to the incompetence of the attacker. The cross from Shaw could not have been better. If this was Wayne Rooney, Cavani, Zlatan, RvN, Ronaldo, Kane etc...on the end of that it's a goal 8 times out of 10 at least. Therefore, the xG could/should be 0.8...but because it fell to a sub-standard player the xG was likely much lower because he didn't connect!

The other bit that really annoys me is I guarantee that we will concede a goal against City this week. It's football. They are a good team in flying-form. I can't see us keeping them out. Soon as we do, the hounds will descend on Maguire, Lindelof and whoever is in goal. I can guarantee it. It will be 'Maguire/Henderson/Lindelof is average' across the board.

Our defence is scrutinised and micro-analysed from every angle and when our attack fails again, it's someone else's fault - whether that's their teammates or the manager or the coaching staff
 
He's only any good when he has space to run in. A couple of years ago when he was even less effective than at the moment for us, hard to believe but I remember some equally non existent performances but without the odd goal/assist. But then he would go on international duty against some sub standard defending leaving space for him and he would look exciting, leading to pundits fawning all over him even though he was doing nothing for us. Likewise how he sometimes looks incredible in Europe for us when the opposition can't be bothered to defend (RB Leipzig at OT this season) or against the Scousers because TAA can't defend for toffee.

Think it's time to actually give Martial another crack on the left, in theory his ball control should actually be better against low block teams. Use Rashy as an impact sub when Martial has tired them out (one can only hope)...

Just looked up all his goals this season and they have pretty much come against teams who are either a bit shite at defending (Luton, Brighton, Newcastle, Sheff U, Southampton) or expansive and leave space at the back (PSG, Leipzig, Istanbul, Leicester, West Ham, Liverpool). The only team which I would call very organised defensively that he has scored against is Wolves with a deflected strike.

I'm not trying to downplay his effectiveness in those games against opposition who leave space and it's great to have someone like him for those types of games, but he's very limited against a very organised defence.
 
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I personally think a lot of it comes back to giving young gifted players superstar wages/contract/status too soon. Never in a million years would he or Martial got those contracts under SAF at that time. SAF went to great lengths to ensure everyone knew who the boss was at all times and then he had experienced players on the pitch, like Keane, who acted as an authority and didn't let other players step out of line. Everyone remembers how unequivocal he was with Beckham, Van Nistelrooy and countless others who weren't meeting requirements.

The contract Rashford is on currently, he should only have got after extending the form he sometimes shows, for a couple of months, to most of a league campaign . I think Rashford on a good day looks like a world class player, but on his off days he is not only very poor but I do think his attitude sucks. He gets stroppy about passes not being exactly where he wants them, nevermind the fact that he himself frequently loses the ball, he walks about and doesn't close players down. Heading is not his strong point but he doesn't even try to challenge for them half the time. This latest incident of dissent to his captain is shocking, he deserves to get stick for being offside as he gets caught offside all the time. Under SAF he would have been hooked for that and at the least hairdryer in the dressing room. If he failed to comply he would simply get shipped out.

Look at how Tuchel treated Hudson-Odoi recently. That is the kind of mettle you need to keep young millionaire players feet on the ground and meld them into successful sides. If I was Ole now, I'd be looking at other players and making sure there was enough noise about it that some of the current ones - Rashford definitely included - knew that, perhaps contrary to their own beliefs, they are entirely replaceable.
 
Correct and as I have said elsewhere, his G/A stats aren’t even that good in the PL, where it matters.

Bruno stinks the place out half the time but his statistics are so good you give him a pass.

Rashford stinks the place out every week and averages a goal about every 3.5 games...nowhere near enough to gloss over the generally horrendously bad performances

He’s averaging a goal or assist every 130 minutes this season in the league.

As a comparison:

Mane - A goal or assist every 178 minutes
Sterling - A goal or assist every 131 minutes
Barnes - A goal or assist every 150 minutes
Aubameyang - A goal or assist every 196 minutes
Werner - A goal or assist every 185 minutes

(All stats calculated via https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/marcus-rashford/profil/spieler/258923)

The only LW’s producing more consistently than Rashford are Son and Grealish.

Rashford was dreadful last night, no doubt. Probably his worst game ever with some of his fundamental issues really laid bare. And he’s been poor (as has the team) for a while now but he’s still produced some match-winning moments in that time - Newcastle and Real Sociedad.

He definitely needs to make improvements but he also probably needs a rest and some other players to step up and help share the attacking burden. He’s not good enough to be a one man-show but he’s definitely good enough to be an important cog in a world-class attacking unit.

We have a long list of problems to sort before we have to worry about Rashford. Literally every other position at the club bar Shaw and Bruno is a more pressing concern: Manager, CEO, DOF, GK, RB, CB, CM, RW, CF etc.

Yes Rashford undoubtedly needs to improve but he clearly has the capacity to; other players dont and they’re the ones we should be focusing on.
 
Massive Rashford fan generally but it would be quite funny if he was the bad influence on Lingard all along
 
Think it was the worst performance I’ve seen from a professional footballer last night and that isn’t hyperbole he was just dreadful, all those flicks that were completely half arsed and as if he didn’t care.
 
Imagine Maguire trying to tell the other players what to do when his defence are leaking goals and costing us points almost every game

imagine the captain not demanding more from under performing teammates!!

it hasnt been the defence who have let down the team in the last few games. three clean sheets in a row.

scoring goals and creating chances from the forwards currently looks like someone trying to suck blood out of a stone.
 
Imagine Maguire trying to tell the other players what to do when his defence are leaking goals and costing us points almost every game

I’m sure it was after Maguire had killed him with a bad pass too!! Rashfords first touch was shockingly bad last night.

On a separate note the passing last night from all the lads was so poor. The weight of pass on a wet surface was terrible too. Fizzing it in from five yards with an opposing player next to them was just a case of not wanting to lose the ball but kill your mate with a bad pass!!

In the first half Rashford went in half arsed which nearly led to Shaw getting injured. Didn’t play as a team last night and instead looked like just a bunch Iv individuals.
 
Playing this way, almost no team in the PL would concede. In fact probably one of the main reasons we're playing so negative and shite is likely because of how weak our defending is.
Im only responding to you saying that the defence is leaking goals and costing us points every game. Which is it?
 
imagine the captain not demanding more from under performing teammates!!

tbf to the defence it hasnt been them who have let down the team in the last few games. three clean sheets in a row.

scoring goals and creating chances from the forwards currently looks like someone trying to suck blood out of a stone.
Let's be honest, it's a joke that he's the captain. Also again, we're playing so negative and defensive probably because of how unreliable we are in defence.
 
Playing this way, almost no team in the PL would concede. In fact probably one of the main reasons we're playing so negative and shite is likely because of how weak our defending is.

Defending so deep because of Maguire lack of speed doesn’t help. Would love the team to play 10-15 yards higher up the pitch.
 
To be honest, I worry whether he will ever be good enough when he is so lacking the most simple technical ability. The amount of times he overruns with the ball or mis-controls it would have had him kicked out of here once upon a time. It’s absolutely criminal.
 
Defending so deep because of Maguire lack of speed doesn’t help. Would love the team to play 10-15 yards higher up the pitch.
Not only that but we need 2 defensive midfielders sitting in front of the defence and we STILL often concede. It's beyond a joke.

If you were Ole what would you do? Even if we tried to be more creative we'd start leaking like a sieve.
 
Let's be honest, it's a joke that he's the captain. Also again, we're playing so negative and defensive probably because of how unreliable we are in defence.

why is it a joke? he, Bruno and Matic are the only genuine contenders for the captains armband. Its a toss up for ~Ole really.

also its not the defences fault for Rashford, Fred and Bruno (last night an example) for playing hospital passes to each other!:lol:
 
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