True. It's a shame Marcus doesn't want to play under Amorim because he's now showing he still has that spark but I'm happy for him. I've been a critic of him in the past but credit where its due. He looks hungry and like the Marcus of old. Long may it continue.
Rashford | Villa | Loan with option to buy
- Thread starter golden_blunder
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
True. It's a shame Marcus doesn't want to play under Amorim because he's now showing he still has that spark but I'm happy for him. I've been a critic of him in the past but credit where its due. He looks hungry and like the Marcus of old. Long may it continue.
You’d like to hope if they’re putting something like this out, they know he’s leaving United.
At least when he said he wanted to try something new, he was holding a Villa shirt a few weeks later.
Just hope we’re getting a good price, whoever is buying him.
Aside from the unlikelihood of the club going to those lengths, I wonder if he cares enough. But yeah, likely one of the few options. I don't know if it's feasible, but would be interesting to see the club make a statement categorically ruling out a loan and rather doing what you suggested than selling him on the cheap in the last few days of the window, just to make a point.
It doesn't seem to affect them, does it? The sign who they want, for the money they don't have, and then they play them after being told they can't. I wouldn't trust that at all. I don't particularly believe that they want Rashford, because why would they? but I don't doubt that he's desperate to continue believing he's a superstar.
He wants to go to the world cup
That's nice. Some leverage.
Well with his wages, he can afford it.
Haha true
KDB feeding Rashford at Villa next season
He wouldn't entertain staying in England surely?
Is there a hint that Barca being interested? In truth, I think he'd do well there, but maybe not consistently. People acting like they're way out of his league, a Rashford putting in effort albeit probably not regularly as it's him in 2025, would still do very well in La Liga.
He is absolutely abysmal whenever I have seen him play, Villa would be absolute idiots to give us that kind of money and pay him those wages. Not that I would complain
I hope Marcus finds another club for his own sake as well as United`s. But I do think it`s wishful thinking and typical agent behavior putting Barcelona`s name out there as a genuine destination for him. If Marcus wants to leave the UK there are leagues with far less pressure and demands than La Liga.
I think it`s fair to say based on what we`ve seen in recent years, he wouldn`t handle La Liga at all well in one of the huge clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid. The rabid level of supporter demands and intolerance when the club isn`t winning is something he`s never experienced in the Premier League and Manchester United. Defenders would close him down more easily than in the Premier League as well.
There would be no special consideration for him as there`s been at United and in England and it`s not hard to see what a ruthless environment La Liga would be for somebody like Marcus at this stage of his career. He`d enjoy the Spanish lifestyle but he`d struggle at a Spanish club. His agent needs to stop enabling his unrealistic focus on top European clubs in Spain and Italy. PSG would be a better fit on paper but does the club really need him?
Antony has gone there and done relatively well has he not? And that's a player who over his United career shown nothing. Unless you believe Antony is a better player then Rashford then fair enough.
The clubs that could pay his wage have better players already and the teams he probably wants to join are the same. He's going to have to lower his wage demands by half. Rashford for 150k a week and I'm sure he'd have a lot suitors out there.
Yeah, the idea that Rashford struggles to cope with pressure is odd. He’s constantly performed in the big matches against our rivals and every time we’ve managed to get a semi-functional team around him, he’s generally then been a consistent performer.
What Rashford seems to struggle with is playing in a dysfunctional team. He lets his head go down and isn’t the leader that he should be in those circumstances. I can’t imagine that occurring too often at Barcelona though.
If anything he’s often a big factor in a team going from semi-functional to dysfunctional. Hence we’ve seen him go from extremely prolific to incapable of hitting a cow’s arse with a banjo in two different periods of the same season, playing for the same team.
I think most people will accept that EtH’s decision to play without a midfield was pretty critical to the dysfunctionality last season. Similarly, Rashford wasn’t even fit at the point things started to go badly wrong in Ole’s final season. The reality is that, in those seasons, we have been just as bad without Rashford, strongly indicating that he wasn’t the main problem.
I don't think that is the sort of pressure that Rashford struggles with. He can absolutely turn it on in a big game at any given time. I think he struggles with the pressure of maintaining his performances over a full season, being a main man.
I think Barcelona would be fine with this as they have many other scoring options and wouldn't view him as a talisman. He would just need to drop his demand for talisman like wages, which he may well do for Barcelona.
I actually think he'd absolutely crush La Liga TBF.
In those seasons when he was playing like a striker worthy of his exorbitant salary we were a team showing title winning form, which went to pot when his own form collapsed, strongly indicating that he actually was the main problem*.
*If not main, then a pretty damn big problem
Yeah, that’s probably fair, albeit I remain unconvinced he’s any more inconsistent over a season than any other forward. I don’t get the impression he personally wants to be the main man - so far, he seems very happy at Villa mixing in and being a bit more low profile.
He's definitely a streaky scorer. Not that it's particularly an issue, lots of players are. Rooney was and he's one of the best players I've ever seen.
Most players are if you start to look at it in depth, especially wingers. Rashford tends to tail off a little at the end of seasons (presumably due to the number of matches he usually plays) but he generally ticks along with a fairly steady supply of goals and assists - even this season he’s on a goal or assist every 120 minutes or so and I don’t think anyone would suggest he’s had any sort of real purple patch.
Rooney was more talented and much more versatile, though. He didn't need a specific role on the pitch (with specific teammates to accommodate him). Quite the contrary, he was as useful (if not more) as the player who played second-fiddle in terms of scoring goals to make the team better with his skill set. He was also able to work out solutions on his own (and with his teammates) when the going got tough or when he and/or the team were going through a rough patch.
Indeed they wouldn’t. Because a goal or assist every 120 minute is a shit return for one of the most well paid attackers in the league who is combining that mediocre haul with being one of the most ineffective in his position when his team isn’t in possession. A “steady supply of goals and assists” at Rashford’s usual rate would only be an asset to a team with ambitions of winning the league if it really was steady (i.e. persisted throughout an entire season) and was backed up by extremely hard work, defensively. Instead he’s putting the sort of out of possession effort we see from the likes of Messi, Salah or Mbappe with nowhere near their goal threat.
A goal or assist every 120 minutes works out at about 35GA over a full season. You’ve lost touch with reality if you think that’s a “shit return”.
In the PL, he averages 12.2 G/A per season throughout his career, though. That's not good enough for the money he's on.
He said its not off the table.
In all competitions, it’s not impressive, that’s for damn sure. And “not impressive” is exactly how anyone who isn’t fully emotionally invested in the cult of Rashford would describe his overall productivity in his career so far.
Precisely. And it definitely isn’t good enough from a player who is such a nonentity defensively. If he won the ball back as often as, say, Firmino then those numbers wouldn’t be so underwhelming.
Of course it’s impressive. There’s not a single left forward in the league who will reach that level this season. You can debate whether it’s worth £300k a week (I’d probably agree with you it’s too much - he’s more a £200k a week type level player in my view) but the idea it’s shit or that it would have to be accompanied by “extremely hard work, defensively” is just utterly risible.
What does he average if we take a reasonable approach of judging him from when he was 21 onwards?
The fact Rooney did all this and proved that he could be a 30 goal striker if you wanted him to be, is phenomenal really, isn’t it? So underrated in his pomp.
It’s almost an insult to him to be referenced in a Rashford conversation. He was one of the best players in the world at his peak, Marcus is only paid like one.
Where do you get them stats from? Also where does match up with his prem peers like Son, Mane etc...
The way you keep moving the goalposts is so ridiculous. He’s a left forward now, is he? What position was he playing when he scored (I think?) all of his PL goals this season? He plays wide left and through the centre. So really should be compared with other strikers. Because God knows he doesn’t track back like a winger. Anyway. Let’s just compare him with goalscorers. He is currently sitting in 47th place in the PL top goalscorer table (68th place for assists). And you seem to think this is somehow an impressive return. Which says it all really.
PL Stats Only:
Rashford, G+A every 141.7mins
Mane, G+A every 136.9mins
Son, G+A every 119.5mins
Salah, G+A every 89.0mins
Rashford, 15+ G/A - 4 seasons
Mane, 15+ G/A - 7 seasons
Salah, 15+ G/A - 8 seasons
Son, 15+ G/A - 9 seasons
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Is Son really that low? That’s basically 50GA average every season in the league (assuming he played most matches) and he’s been good but that sounds insane.
Edit - checked myself and Son is a GA every 119.5 minutes in the premier league. salah’s is correct though, absolutely freakishly good sadly.
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I tend to agree. The defensive contribution wouldn't be (much of) an issue, if he was putting up Ronaldo(Salah)-esque numbers. After all, the main goal getters always tend to get reasonable leeway in that regard. But he's not, and therein lies the issue (which isn't entirely Rashford's fault). United created the Ronaldo role, decided that Rashford would fill it, and paid him accordingly. But Ronaldo wasn't just a goal-scoring machine, he was also a player who would read the opposition and look for the chinks in their defensive armour. That's what made him so lethal and worth of all the accommodations made for him (Benzema basically sacrificed his career to be the false #9 to the point where people believed that he was just a passenger in Madrid). Rashford doesn't have that in his arsenal, it's always up to the manager to find the solutions for him. During the rough patches and when the opposition figures out our tactics. Both Solskjaer and ETH enjoyed the good and the bad of this. It works until it doesn't, and then it's back to the drawing board until you run out of chalk. But i don't think it's worth 300K p/w, even if you like Rashford as a player.
13.3. The last couple of seasons (current one included) and the Solskajer/Rangnick one haven't been kind to his stats.
Stat Muse (I took them from a podcast in my country about him that referenced them as their source). Mane had 18.8 (not the main goalscorer at Liverpool). Son's at 21.4
One of the best ever English players (regardless of the Rashford debate). Simple as that.
Nope made a formula error, fixed. Double checked everything else and all correct. I got lazy and didn't put in a proper formula.
Based on transfermarket, his Man United stats is 426 games, 138G, 79A. Total 217 G&A. 217/426 = 0.509 contribution per game (not per 90). It is a very good stats for any winger or inside forward. He has similar contribution for Villa this season as well (10 G/A out of 17 games).
https://www.transfermarkt.us/marcus...verein=985&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=
Please feel free to find any player has this contribution in EPL. I only know Salah and Saka have higher output out of my head.
Sadio Mane has 120G + 43A in 269 games under Klopp's Liverpool. 0.605 contribution per game.
I lost count how many different coaches, formations and teammates Rashford played with in United.
https://www.transfermarkt.us/marcus...verein=985&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=
Please feel free to find any player has this contribution in EPL. I only know Salah and Saka have higher output out of my head.
Sadio Mane has 120G + 43A in 269 games under Klopp's Liverpool. 0.605 contribution per game.
I lost count how many different coaches, formations and teammates Rashford played with in United.
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That’s simplistic though. At no stage did it really stop working under Ole (as I said before, Rashford wasn’t even playing when it all started to go south) and the tactics under ETH worked until he removed the axis in midfield and tried to develop a different style (whilst incidentally playing most of that season without a left back and a decent CF - it’s notable that even Salah seems to have suffered a little without the support of TAA recently).
The real issue is the failure to properly bring through players in the other forward positions to give flexibility and support and to cover if Rashford happened to have a dip in form. If our main frontline currently consisted of Rashford-Martial-Greenwood, with a 29 year old Martial at the level you’d expect the 25 year old version to be at, and Greenwood being a decent human being, I doubt this thread would exist.