Rashford | Villa | Loan with option to buy

[Moiraine]

Maybe he's just one of those who require a change of scenery to be motivated. I don't know what he was like in training for England as Southgate didn't seem to rate him too highly, however, on the pitch, he always busted a gut for England. The difference in effort levels between England and United was stark.

I am sorry but I strongly disagree and dislike Rashford even more. He scored in one season got a mega contract and dropped his performance levels. Even though ETH publicly saying that Man United is Rashford’s Club. Club will adjust and build around him. His attitude and performances were just unacceptable. With there is a clause in players contracts that a certain dip in performance or effort, club could end his contract without any financial incentive.

 

[Camilo]

Which must tell you something.. the standard at United is alot higher than other clubs....

You can have 5 minute moments in games and everyone will say its a good game whilst at United they are judged for longer periods.

15th in the table. There aren't any standards, we're just shite.

 

[Glorio]

I am sorry but I strongly disagree and dislike Rashford even more. He scored in one season got a mega contract and dropped his performance levels. Even though ETH publicly saying that Man United is Rashford’s Club. Club will adjust and build around him. His attitude and performances were just unacceptable. With there is a clause in players contracts that a certain dip in performance or effort, club could end his contract without any financial incentive.

I'm not saying it's acceptable. It's clear to see he wasn't motivated to apply effort here, which really is basically defrauding the club and the fans. However, I'm trying to rationalise why.

He's obviously very invested in his image, and even the dumbest person would know that performance levels would be directly proportional to said image. He's been basically made the face of Manchester United which magnifies that 10-fold.

This is why it's really bemusing that he can't motivate himself.

My prevailing assumption is his main motivator to succeed in football was quite pure: to help himself and family financially. Now he's achieved that with the talent he has, he doesn't really have any innate drive to strive for anything more, particularly having been at the same place where he's been comfortable from childhood and has proven himself to be a "success" here (fixture in the first team, highest paid, climbing the all time goalscoring charts).


I don't need to hate the guy, the managers here decided to play him regardless of him mentally packing it in, I'm just pleased he has finally been called up on it.
Don't get me wrong, I am disappointed because if he actually did manage to motivate himself, he'd be a huge asset in a club that's currently starved of prolific attackers, but I don't hate him for it. I doubt he intentionally decided "I'm going to stop trying", he just has. And the only thing I suspect might wake him up is having to prove himself in another big club elsewhere.

 

[Glorio]

15th in the table. There aren't any standards, we're just shite.

You're correct in terms of our quality, but that doesn't take away from the fact that we're judged at a higher and harsher standard than most. Why is a loss for team which is 13th in the league big news?

 

[He'sRaldo]

Gonna be yet another example of us masterfully getting rid of “deadwood” as we have the last couple of years. Can’t wait to see who his replacement will be.

In all seriousness it’s a couple of different factors that have affected Rashford but the main ones are tactical:

Ten Hag’s first season played to his strengths, especially with his diminishing explosiveness. He either played up top (same position he played and scored two goals for Amorim) or higher and narrower on the left, flanked by Shaw. Very much different from the second season where he had to hug the touchline and beat 3 men, supported by AWB.

Sure he lost some work rate but that doesn’t matter as much as his productivity. If he’s fit and firing us to CL qualification, he’s not going to get as much flack as if he was unproductive. But of course, instead of trying to work on his productivity, we blame him, label him yet another bad attitude deadwood (funny how we seem to collect those like Pokémon cards), and bin him off. And of course, sign an athletic left back immediately after he’s gone…

He’s not blameless in all this by the way. The lack of professionalism he showed at times was shocking, and the main reason I don’t disagree with shipping him out. And if he’s not scoring, he should have worked harder off the ball (not that it helped the likes of Lingard, Pereira, or Dan James).

The crux of it though, is that if he’s not producing, he will be shipped out eventually. All the talk of work rate etc is misdirected simply because he isn’t scoring 30+ goals a season. So we should have helped him score more, instead of making it harder. And that goes for all our attackers.

Now here we are, sitting in 15th place and averaging a point and probably a goal a game, playing 5 at the back, and calling every player under the sun relegation quality. It’s hard to believe we’re going in the right direction, and this is anything other than a repeat of the past 10+ years. But a lot worse.

 

[Doracle]

There is no reason to compare him with Liverpool players, especially with someone like Salah. And you never really answered my question what do you think he did well, do you have single action that he did well?

So we don’t compare him with other players playing nearly the same position on the pitch in the same match? Honestly, sometimes just accept you’ve made a bad point - it will save us both a lot of time.

As for the second part, I didn’t think he did anything amazing but he linked up well with the other Villa forwards, set up a goal which was narrowly offside, won the free kick and then put in a very dangerous ball from which Villa equalised. It was a solid display, on his first start in 2 months.

 

[ThierryHenry14]

He did pretty well for Villa so far, given he probably still lacks match fitness to last 90 mins. He is motivated and tries to prove a point obviously, and also plays for a move to a club he desires.

I am confused whether Utd fans want him fail in Villa then stuck with him on the bench and his wages, or him do well and use the 40m transfer fee to buy his replacement.

I am sure Emery is well aware that Rashford doesn't contribute much defensively and adjusted his tactics to accommodate Rashford accordingly. If Rashford starts again next match for Villa then it means Emery is happy with his service/output.

 

[roseguy64]

Gonna be yet another example of us masterfully getting rid of “deadwood” as we have the last couple of years. Can’t wait to see who his replacement will be.

In all seriousness it’s a couple of different factors that have affected Rashford but the main ones are tactical:

Ten Hag’s first season played to his strengths, especially with his diminishing explosiveness. He either played up top (same position he played and scored two goals for Amorim) or higher and narrower on the left, flanked by Shaw. Very much different from the second season where he had to hug the touchline and beat 3 men, supported by AWB.

Sure he lost some work rate but that doesn’t matter as much as his productivity. If he’s fit and firing us to CL qualification, he’s not going to get as much flack as if he was unproductive. But of course, instead of trying to work on his productivity, we blame him, label him yet another bad attitude deadwood (funny how we seem to collect those like Pokémon cards), and bin him off. And of course, sign an athletic left back immediately after he’s gone…

He’s not blameless in all this by the way. The lack of professionalism he showed at times was shocking, and the main reason I don’t disagree with shipping him out. And if he’s not scoring, he should have worked harder off the ball (not that it helped the likes of Lingard, Pereira, or Dan James).

The crux of it though, is that if he’s not producing, he will be shipped out eventually. All the talk of work rate etc is misdirected simply because he isn’t scoring 30+ goals a season. So we should have helped him score more, instead of making it harder. And that goes for all our attackers.

Now here we are, sitting in 15th place and averaging a point and probably a goal a game, playing 5 at the back, and calling every player under the sun relegation quality. It’s hard to believe we’re going in the right direction, and this is anything other than a repeat of the past 10+ years. But a lot worse.

Not a lot I'd disagree with in this post. Both the club and the player messed up to lead to the situation.