It's regularly being repeated on this forum and elsewhere that Rashford is better as a left forward or winger, rather than a centre forward. And as recently as December 2022, Rashford himself said that left wing is his preferred position. But as the season rumbled on and we were hit with Martial's absences and Weghorst's inability, Rashford started getting more games centrally. And he did well. So while the assumption that he's a better winger was certainly the case earlier in his career, I'm beginning to have doubts that it still holds true in 2022/23. After all, players change over time and the tale of a winger evolving into a central striker is probably as old as football. Henry, Van Persie, Ronaldo, Griezmann... the list goes on.
It might be a surprise to some but Rashford started 18 games as a striker this season. And he's done remarkably well for it.
He scored 11 goals and produced 5 assists in 18 appearances, or 15 full games across all competitions (if you want to check the games for yourselves 1 by 1, click the link). He has in fact been more productive individually from a central position this season.
DISCLAIMER: These stats are based on starting positions and are subject to some margin of error, on either direction, as player positions change during the game. It's not 100% accurate, but it's also not biased in any particular way.
Playstyle wise, we all know he is a direct player who likes to face the goal, take players on (with.. various degrees of success), try long range shots, play on the shoulder of the defenders and beat the offside trap with pace. Even when playing centrally he likes to drift left for better angles on his right foot. A thing of note however is that he has also improved on his heading scoring 4 headed goals this season . He had only scored 5 headed goals in his whole career up until the start of this season, averaging less than 1 per season.
He's definitely not the best at playing back to goal, holding the ball up and bringing others into play. Though not all strikers play that way. There's nothing in his playstyle that makes it prohibitive or counter-productive to use him centrally.
If we were to switch Rashford centrally it would have a big impact on our transfer strategy. It's not about whether we need another striker, which given Martial's state we absolutely do, but more about what kind of a striker we need. Instead of betting the whole house on a marquee signing like Kane or Osimhen, we could instead sign someone younger to be second fiddle to Rashford. Someone like Højlund, Ferguson, Goncalo Ramos etc. That would give them time to adapt to the league and team, without the immense pressure of delivering a lot of goals from the start. It might also dictate what qualities we need on the striker, maybe someone that complements Rashford by having as strengths Rashford's weakness.
More importantly however, Rashford becoming a central striker needs to be for the benefit of the team. We need to improve our total output in goals significantly. Currently Rashford is contributing a lot from the wing, while we have very little output from the #9 position. So it seems natural thinking that buying a good #9 that can add 20-25 goals, we would easily increase our total goals. Switching Rashford centrally would "fix" the problem with our striker not scoring goals, but it seems like shifting the problem from the striker position to the wings. Unfortunately, neither Sancho nor Antony have been as productive as we hoped. Garnacho had a breakthrough season and that helped a bit. Pellistri and Elanga not done enough to be here next season. Amad will probably return from loan and get the opportunities that were given to the latter two. So the question then becomes if Antony, Sancho, Garnacho & Amad can find 20-25 goals, more between them. Or about 5-6 goals more each. Do we have that faith with our other wingers?
What do you think Caf?
It might be a surprise to some but Rashford started 18 games as a striker this season. And he's done remarkably well for it.
He scored 11 goals and produced 5 assists in 18 appearances, or 15 full games across all competitions (if you want to check the games for yourselves 1 by 1, click the link). He has in fact been more productive individually from a central position this season.
DISCLAIMER: These stats are based on starting positions and are subject to some margin of error, on either direction, as player positions change during the game. It's not 100% accurate, but it's also not biased in any particular way.
Playstyle wise, we all know he is a direct player who likes to face the goal, take players on (with.. various degrees of success), try long range shots, play on the shoulder of the defenders and beat the offside trap with pace. Even when playing centrally he likes to drift left for better angles on his right foot. A thing of note however is that he has also improved on his heading scoring 4 headed goals this season . He had only scored 5 headed goals in his whole career up until the start of this season, averaging less than 1 per season.
He's definitely not the best at playing back to goal, holding the ball up and bringing others into play. Though not all strikers play that way. There's nothing in his playstyle that makes it prohibitive or counter-productive to use him centrally.
If we were to switch Rashford centrally it would have a big impact on our transfer strategy. It's not about whether we need another striker, which given Martial's state we absolutely do, but more about what kind of a striker we need. Instead of betting the whole house on a marquee signing like Kane or Osimhen, we could instead sign someone younger to be second fiddle to Rashford. Someone like Højlund, Ferguson, Goncalo Ramos etc. That would give them time to adapt to the league and team, without the immense pressure of delivering a lot of goals from the start. It might also dictate what qualities we need on the striker, maybe someone that complements Rashford by having as strengths Rashford's weakness.
More importantly however, Rashford becoming a central striker needs to be for the benefit of the team. We need to improve our total output in goals significantly. Currently Rashford is contributing a lot from the wing, while we have very little output from the #9 position. So it seems natural thinking that buying a good #9 that can add 20-25 goals, we would easily increase our total goals. Switching Rashford centrally would "fix" the problem with our striker not scoring goals, but it seems like shifting the problem from the striker position to the wings. Unfortunately, neither Sancho nor Antony have been as productive as we hoped. Garnacho had a breakthrough season and that helped a bit. Pellistri and Elanga not done enough to be here next season. Amad will probably return from loan and get the opportunities that were given to the latter two. So the question then becomes if Antony, Sancho, Garnacho & Amad can find 20-25 goals, more between them. Or about 5-6 goals more each. Do we have that faith with our other wingers?
What do you think Caf?
