The first paragraph.
The genius of Marcus Rashford
- Thread starter MancunianAngels
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What exactly is it that you think Rashford isn't getting away with that others would? He's been completely rubbish this season, and he has had off the field issues as well that were entirely his own fault. He hasn't exactly been crucified in the media, as far as I can tell. It's actually been more concern than outrage, at least from some pundits.
i dont recall Tories/media out for him last year when the ball was flying in the net
What's wrong with what I said? Isn't it true that Rashy irked the Tory party in government? Don't you think that a big chunk of the media is linked with that party and will always make a fuss on Rashford because of it? Just compare how Belfastgate was reported as opposed to what Walker did at City. Do you really think that Rashy is the only player in the EPL who skipped training following an allegately hangover?
First of all I am not defending Rashford in any way. A top tier player should act as a top tier player especially one whose earning 300k a week. However ask yourself this simple question. Do you think that Rashy is the only player in the EPL who skipped training because he remained late at a nightclub? Did those players had their story dragged in the media for days if not weeks like Rashy did?
I have no idea. Maybe some did, but I can't remember any.
If Rashford's story got more amplified than others, it's because a) He plays for the most scrutinized club in the country, b) He's supposed to be our starboy, but he's been rubbish the entire season, c) The team is in crisis, so the story gets added relevance due to that. Of course, it's a bigger story if Rashford does it compared to some no-name Nottingham Forest or Luton player.
I doubt there is any real agenda from the media against him based on his opposition to the Conservative party 3-4 years ago. It's tinfoil hat stuff.
From the time I worked side by side with politics I can assure you that its a minefield. Politicians and their associates have long memories as well and hate when a private citizen makes them look bad. Howson made a video hinting the same argument I did. However you might be right of course
I don't think they give a shit.
Redcafe thinks Mitoma is better
Redcafe thinks Mitoma is better
I saw this compilation on Reddit yesterday. It's desperate. You could make a video twice as long that would show all his mistakes, running into defenders, weak challenges, etc. if that's what you wanted. He has had a really bad season.
I think Marcus is a very talented footballer, but he doesn't make the best of his abilities. He can be unstoppable.
During the derby, he scored that wordle, which we all know he is capable of. But the little things, like getting a good first touch on a through ball, or a volley from close range, he gets horribly wrong. A top player should score the wonder goals, but also be technically polished. And he isn't. At least not constantly. He is 26 now, and should be approaching the top of his game.
If he were a squad player, or on a reasonable wage, i think i'd be ok with him staying at United. the problem is he's too high profile and too expensive to be on the bench.
I hope he can turn it around. He's generally likable, he's an academy product and a local lad who does love the club. But that should mean he understands the value of the shirt he wears and at least give maximum effort.
During the derby, he scored that wordle, which we all know he is capable of. But the little things, like getting a good first touch on a through ball, or a volley from close range, he gets horribly wrong. A top player should score the wonder goals, but also be technically polished. And he isn't. At least not constantly. He is 26 now, and should be approaching the top of his game.
If he were a squad player, or on a reasonable wage, i think i'd be ok with him staying at United. the problem is he's too high profile and too expensive to be on the bench.
I hope he can turn it around. He's generally likable, he's an academy product and a local lad who does love the club. But that should mean he understands the value of the shirt he wears and at least give maximum effort.
Yes, he has had a bad season. His decision making also often frustrates the hell out of me.
He's still one of the best left wingers in the world, though. You gotta be blind to call him a mid-table player, or think the likes of Mitoma, etc. are better players. And those are the sort of opinions I've been reading on here about him.
he’s what now?
What I said. Has been for some years now.
how on earth has he been one of the best left wingers in the world for some years now?
He hasn't, but it'll be interesting to watch the mental gymnastics unfold when that posters answers
Discussing his level is quite difficult, because it has changed so drastically from year to year. Do you judge him on this season? The best full season he has played (last year)? Or maybe an average of what he has shown over the last 4-5 years?
Based on what he has shown this year he clearly is not one of the best left wingers in the world. Looking over a longer period, he is maybe top 10 or something like that. The ability is there for him to regain his form, but he has to show it on the field.
I’d be very curious to see this list of 9 left wingers who’ve been better than him over the past 5 years. Arguably he’s top 10 in the world this year, in a relatively poor season for him.
Did you guys watch him last season? 21/22 was awful, I agree, but other than that season he's been on a high level since 2019. Even if you dismiss how much of an outlet and danger he is, just looking at his overall stats, how can you deny that he's among the best?
19/20: 34 G/A in 44 matches, 29 in 37 if you only look at the two biggest competitions (PL/EL)
20/21: 36 G/A in 57 matches, 31 in 50 PL/CL/EL
21/22: 7 G/A in 32 mtches, 7 in 30 in PL/CL (this is the season where Ronaldo ruined the whole team, basically)
22/23: 41 G/A in 56 games, 30 in 44 PL/EL
How many wingers are there with numbers like this that also play in a shit team? Not many, if any at all.
The likes of Son, Mané, etc. were praised to high heaven for putting up similar (at times, worse) numbers in much better teams, especially Mané.
Rashford has been putting up these numbers more often than not in United sides that have been competing for top 4, and nothing more. He's never played in a serious title challenger team and has never been a problem when the team is collectively doing well. As soon as we start struggling he becomes one of the biggest scapegoats.
You can criticise him for a lot of things, and his decision making often drives me insane as well. My problem is that his own teams' supporters are generally clueless about his general level and what his ceiling is, and categorize him with the likes of fecking Mitoma who has 3 goals in his last 30 PL games, having never been close to being a creative outlet like Rashford is even on his bad days. So yeah, criminally underrating Rashford won't make your opinion unbiased, it will be a clueless one instead.
If we're going to replace him, we'll end up with someone that can eventually reach his level, and not someone who will come in and do better than he has for 3 of the last 5 seasons, unless we somehow get Mbappé/Vinícius/Son. Good luck with that, though.
One more thing to add: If you watch that compilation and call it desperate: fine. I don't think the creator wanted to imply that Rashford is having a great season. In fact, even his biggest defenders like me would agree that he's been struggling this season, like most of the squad. However, there are not many wingers out there who can do the things Rashford does in those 5 minutes, and it doesn't help his case that he often makes difficult things seem easy to execute, which makes people subconsciously have higher expectations of him.
Says it all that in a season where both him and the team are struggling, he still has 12 G/A in around 27 matches worth of minutes overall. 1 assist aside all of those are in the PL and CL too.
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Well, Top 10 doesn't mean 10th exactly, but somewhere in that area. Actually looking at it over the last 4-5 years, it might only be the likes of Mbappe, Vinicius, Heung-min Son, and Mané that have been better overall, so maybe it's more like Top 5 over that period. On current form you'd have to look at the likes of Martinelli, Kvaratskhelia, Leao, etc. being better. Probably there are more.
Anyway, I'm not here to go into minutiae about exactly where he ranks vs. other specific players. The point is we need more from him, in terms of effort, attitude and output. I'd be worried going into next season with him as our main left winger, because we won't know what we get.
This is a perfectly acceptable opinion for me. But you still gotta wonder why it's so widely acceptable for Leao and Kvaratskhelia to have weak numbers in a piss easy league compared to the PL, especially considering that they also had their best seasons when their teams were the best / among the best teams in the league.
Martinelli is a good shout and he's up there with the best players in his position as well...but he also only started really firing when Arsenal as a collective became one of the best teams in the league and a serious title challenger, so from last season onwards.
Martinelli has two more goals and one less assist than Rashford this season, playing for a team with 68 league goals compared to our 37. How many do we think Rashford would have playing for the free flowing most attacking team in the league?
I don't know, and I also know stats aren't everything, even though I've been heavily relying on them whilst making my points. But that's because you can see Rashford's strengths and I don't think they need discussing: pace, creativity, ball striking, ball carrying, transitions, cutting inside onto his right foot, etc.
Martinelli btw is also someone who is tasked to attempt as many shots as possible every game, because his ball striking and quality in the final third is evident, similar to Rashford.
I do think Rashford would've done better than him for Arsenal, though, as the Brazilian did also struggle at the start of the season, but most of Arsenal's attack did as well, to be fair. As great as they are now at often scoring 5-6 goals in a game, finishing was actually a huge problem for them a few months ago and it was about to derail their whole season before they went on this current winning streak of 7 league games in a row.
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Just want to mention Neymar, because I intentionally didn't mention players who don't play in Europe anymore. Last 5 years, though, he's gotta be there and ahead of everyone on ability.
Ah, numbers.
Last season, Rashford scored 30 goals in 56 games, 30 goals in 4300 mins, 17 league goals in 35 matches, 5 assists in the league and 11 in total. 3124mins. However, he scored 42% of his total amount of goals for the past 3 seasons (including this one) within a 2 month period between end of dec and end of february. 60% of his goals last season was scored within that period, 19 matches..
It’s as if he had 3 periods, where the one in the middle was insanely productive while the first and the last are like night and day compared to it.
Overall, his numbers from last season looks excellent on paper, but we're still talking about a Marcus Rashford that barely made the England squad for the World Cup because his performances in Ole’s last season was a disaster, and he hardly made a positive start to the 22/23 season either. If anything, his performances so far this season mirrors those in his 21/22 season.
Son and Mane weren’t just producing solid numbers, they were also extremely hard working players in a collective up front, especially Mane. There’s no room for complete passengers, as it has a detrimental effect on the entire team
It’s perfectly fine that it’s difficult to consistently perform in a team that’s struggling, but the main criticism aimed at Rashford is his lack of workrate on the pitch compared to the other players.
As for the compilation, it is desperate and hardly a measure of quality.
From a performance perspective, i have no idea how anyone can reach the conclusion that the only possible way to improve on Rashford is to get Mbappe, Vinicius or Son. Rashfords last season where he actually played well was under Ole in 20/21.
He is not even the best left winger in England.
Exactly. I don't understand those who make the kind of statements that put the guy on any kind of pedestal. They only have to look at what happens when he gets the ball 85-90% of the time and the outcome ranges to disgraceful to comical, via infuriating.
There's so much basic, basic stuff that simply isn't there.
I think you attribute that to same reason why he walks around the pitch like a legend who's earned the right to ease-up on putting in a shift due after a decade as an club/global footballing icon.
When you're already treated like a God when you haven't properly learned your craft, what incentive is there to keep your head down and keep working hard to develop? Probably not much.
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Not sure he's the best left winger in the club.
If he isn't gone in the summer I'm giving up on the club.
I can bet you'd be giving up on the club then.
Horrendous.
I'll warn the users of Blue Moon and RAWK that you'll be posting on there soon.
Probably posting on there already, definitely not a United fan
The feck are people coming on here to slag off our players after a 4-3 last mi ute extra time win against Liverpool.
Honestly why bother supporting a team at all?
Honestly why bother supporting a team at all?
This this this this this
Happy to say he's looking more like the player we know he is. He looks like he's enjoying himself again and I'm happy to have the real Rashy back.
He was great today, very lively and clearly up for it. I’ll concede that it would be nice to see that energy and enthusiasm more consistently but these moments are why you keep him around. Love the guy.
Were you looking the other way for all those missed sitters?
"Lively", yes. "Great", no where near.
Credit where it’s due - very well done yesterday on the fast start and then the goal. His movement for the missed chance was good but it was a terrible miss. That could have deflated him but he came back from it excellently.
I have been hugely critical of him as he’s a momentbut this was a good day for Marcus and the club as a whole!
I have been hugely critical of him as he’s a momentbut this was a good day for Marcus and the club as a whole!
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