What I detest about how many on this forum discuss Rashford is the whole tone where the glass is half empty, people openly wear with pride their low opinion of him and want to see "his bubble to be burst", as a now infamous thread put it. The discussion is framed by an assumption that we all know that he isn't really that good and it is negligent of anyone to not try and bring him down a peg or two, as opposed to a more constructive critique of how we can get the most out of him.
Rashford's had his best ever season in terms of direct goal contributions and compares very well to anyone in his age bracket, despite having given up penalties to Bruno Fernandes for the betterment of the team. He compares very well to Rooney's impact at a similar age, despite Rooney playing in arguably our greatest team of all time. We'd all have been very pleased with that individual performance outcome for Rashford if offered at the beginning of the season.
People seem to be forgetting that for much of the season, Bruno and Rashford have been carrying us.
- Martial has done very little of consequence having been badly out of form or injured.
- Cavani has been a part-time footballer for much of the season, struggling badly for form and fitness, with only 4 goals by the New Year.
- Greenwood was having a very difficult 2nd season as a senior professional with only 4 goals by mid-March!
- Pogba was in poor form, then injured repeatedly.
- James is quite mediocre at this level, etc.
Rashford's had to manage himself through the season with numerous injuries and niggles, because we desperately needed him. It is only in the last couple of months that Greenwood, Pogba and Cavani could finally be relied upon. It's absolutely churlish to hurl Rashford's injuries and lack of full fitness back at him. He's in this state at the end of the season, because we demanded it from him.
If he hadn't given everything over the season, United wouldn't be playing Champions League next season, and there would have been no lighter period for Cavani and Greenwood to showcase their goalscoring during the run in in securing second. There's an alternative pattern of events, with exactly the same volumes of goals and assists, where Rashford had a strong second half of the season, and Cavani and Greenwood had their leaner and more testing spells in the second half too. There we'd be thanking our lucky stars that Bruno and Rashford carries us to second in the league, because virtually nobody else turned up until the New Year in the league, or in the CL group stage.