Why can't Rashford play on the right wing?

Inigo Montoya said:
I’m pretty sure he smashed one in against Brighton with his left
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Rashford has 46 PL goals in the PL (nowhere near enough but hey, let's not get into that)

36 have been scored with his right. 6 with his left.

Even if we only use 'goals scored' as a measure of how effective someone is with their weaker foot, I think it's safe to say his right is considerably stronger and Rashford would always favour that side
 
Lentwood said:
Rashford has 46 PL goals in the PL (nowhere near enough but hey, let's not get into that)

36 have been scored with his right. 6 with his left.

Even if we only use 'goals scored' as a measure of how effective someone is with their weaker foot, I think it's safe to say his right is considerably stronger and Rashford would always favour that side
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While that is true I do wonder how many goals he has scored from the right side with his right foot. It feels like he has scored a lot coming from the right.
 
Rashford's strengths are playing against stretched defences. He's devastating when attacking the goal from that inside left channel. He's also decent up top against certain teams, he played well against Newcastle and has plenty of attributes that allow him to be a good no. 9.

I haven't really seen any evidence that he can play from the right. I mean I'm sure he could, but why would we want that? We'd basically be nullifying all of the strong points of his game, and relying on his creative and crossing abilities. Is that where we see Rashford playing long term?

Let's just buy a proper right winger instead, and let Rashford learn the role of an inside forward in that left channel. That's where he's been the most consistent for us. Alternatively, we play him in a strike partnership as I feel he's always played well when we play split strikers in the 352. For too long now we've been fitting square pegs in round holes.
 
Ed9 said:
As a right-footed forward his preference is to cut in and shoot. On the right, Greenwood, also a forward can do both shooting and crossing as an added bonus as he can play with both feet.
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Except he very rarely does.
Greenwood is more likely to cross when he drifted to the left wing, and oh boy he sure can deliver sweet deliveries of crosses eg. the cross to Bruno counter attack.

When playing on RW, Greenwood similarly is more obsess in cutting in and shoot, than keeping width and delivering crosses.
 
I think the main reason is once we play Rashford on RW, we just don't have any reliable LW yet, considering Martial is CF nowadays and similarly we're lacking good CF until Cavani really prove his worth and fitness.

We're already seeing Ole experimented playing Pogba on LW and commented VDB as LW option, but Pogba didn't really play well. I like to see Greenwood play more on LW in some games.

So I think it's just a matter of times until we're seeing Rashford playing more on the right wing. He's also out injured for many games isn't he.
 
Web of Bissaka said:
Except he very rarely does.
Greenwood is more likely to cross when he drifted to the left wing, and oh boy he sure can deliver sweet deliveries of crosses eg. the cross to Bruno counter attack.

When playing on RW, Greenwood similarly is more obsess in cutting in and shoot, than keeping width and delivering crosses.
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I agree, that's why I wrote crossing could be an added bonus. He should definetly mix it up a bit when he plays from the wing because only crosses from the left come from Shaw (now hopefully Telles).
 
Rashford's biggest asset is cutting inside onto his stronger foot, Mason is better off the right he's just having a few teething issues at the moment. I also think Van de Beek can play from the right in the same way Ole uses Mata, only with more pace and stamina.
 
Playing on the right requires players to be able to dribble, pass and shoot with left for at times. For some reason Rashford, like most top international players, is almost completely one footed.
 
Valar Morghulis said:
I'll point out the most obvious choice but clearly neither of you agree with it otherwise you would have wrote it out yourself.

Martial Cavani Rashford

Go!
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Agree with that and Martial and Rashford could swap it about during the match.
 
luke511 said:
He was the right sided striker vs Leipzig.
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He wasn't. They started the game with the diamond but changed to 4-2-3-1 when Rashford and McTominay came on. He played on the right of the 3.
 
The problem is Wan-Bissaka being the RB makes it hard to play Rashford there against teams that sit deep. Long-term, we're still looking at:

Rashford-Greenwood---------- (Martial)
-----------Bruno-----VDB------Traore (Pogba, Fred, Pellestri/Mejbri on the right )
Telles----------DM----------------- (Shaw/Alvaro on the left, Fred/McTominay at DM)
--------LCB-----Maguire---Wan-Bissaka (Tuanzebe, Lindelof, Dalot/Williams at RB)
---------------De Gea----------------- (Henderson)

as our likely 11 and squad the club should be broadly assuming we're moving forward with when planning transfer. It does look promising and with good balance everywhere though if we can get a proper 6 and LCB in.

Nice that we're down to 2 major buys from the 4-5 I felt we were at a couple windows back. This is why my long-term prognosis for us is good, because at the end of the day we're a massively rich club even with most of the money going to debt. Marxist/materialist analysis still the best kind around!
 
A right footed player that plays on the right usually has to be an excellent dribbler and good in tight spaces. It helps even more if you've got a good left foot. Players like Nani, Sancho, Ferran Torres, Mane, Coman, Gnabry are able to do this mainly because of their dribbling ability and/or two footedness.

Rashford isn't a good dribbler in tight spaces and is quite poor with his left foot. He needs space and playing off the left opens the game up a lot more for him than it would on the right.
 
We have tried a few times. He is bang average there. Unless he has improved massively nowadays, shouldn't make him suffer on the right.
 
Borys said:
Anyway, same argumentation can be used to Martial. I don't see much of a difference between them playing on the right, neither is a winger anyway so it's just playing 3 strikers.
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Martial has struggled every time he's played on the right. Most notably when we first bought Sanchez and moved Martial (who had been playing very well on the left and was our best attacker) over to the right, and his form plummeted instantly.

Rashford at least has had some good games there, albeit he's obviously better on the left.
 
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If you monitor angles in football you'll see that Mbappe is very versatile in possession he can go outside the fullback just as comfortably as going on the inside. Not totally the case with Rashford, him and Martial are similar in this context they are both inside forwards. If the club simply doesn't have the financial capacity to fund a Sancho I've got no idea why Sarr isn't considered. Unlike James he has the technical element to effectively use his speed.
 
Ekeke said:
We already tried him there a couple of seasons ago. He did okay, wasnt a standout performer in the role and it doesn't really suit what he likes to do on the football pitch. He wants to come inside from the left and shoot from range with his right foot. Nani was the opposite and wanted to come inside and shoot with his left foot and that was one of the reasons he was better on the right. Rashford is the opposite.

Having said that I dont think he's likely to do any worse than James and Mata on the right wing. Its just I dont think he'll score the goals and be the match winner he was in the first half of last season from the right.

If he was able to do that from the right it would be great for the team. But if anyone could do it from the right it would be great for the team
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Nani was such a dream of a player in many ways: lethal with both feet; able to cut in ala Robben but also able to put in a dangerous cross. If only he hadn't been so inconsistent.
 
jem said:
Nani was such a dream of a player in many ways: lethal with both feet; able to cut in ala Robben but also able to put in a dangerous cross. If only he hadn't been so inconsistent.
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Yep thats why I was a big fan. When he got his crosses right they led to very easy finishes and when he came inside onto his left foot he actually scored more goals with his left than his right. So he was completely ideal to play on the right.

But we played him a bunch on the left :confused:
 
Marcus is an inside forward, not an outside forward (winger).

The skill set is different - it doesn't mean he is useless on the wing, but he is nothing near as effective as someone who specialises in that position.

Frankly, from what I've see of Sancho - mainly for England, I far from convinced he is the answer.
 
RedRoseTyke said:
Marcus is an inside forward, not an outside forward (winger).

The skill set is different - it doesn't mean he is useless on the wing, but he is nothing near as effective as someone who specialises in that position.

Frankly, from what I've see of Sancho - mainly for England, I far from convinced he is the answer.
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There’s not many outside forwards left in honesty. They’re apparently now called full backs.
 
He could play there.

We don't have any proper wingers in the first team squad: Greenwood, Martial and Rashford are all inside forwards. James has no skill to be a winger (I think he could be a decent wingback), Mata is a playmaker and Lingard is an attacking midfielder.

If we accept that our wide players are inside forwards (suited to, say, a 4-3-3) then there is no reason why we couldn't play Martial on the left, Rashford on the right and Cavani through the middle.
 
The thing is if cavani stays relatively injury free and is as big as asset to the side like he has produced most of his career at clubs then surely having either martial or rashford play on the right wing whilst the other plays on the left wing has to still be the best option than to drop one of them out of the side in favour of mata or james on the right instead if Greenwood is having the second season syndrome or has genuinely taken his eye off the ball like reports suggest?
 
I thought this myself, especially towards the end of the last game when Cavani came on. Rashford went right side and had discipline to stay there, and actually gave us an outlet that side rather than always looking left for a pass.

The skillset isnt too much different from him playing left side, he can still look to shift the ball to his right foot and get a shot off, only difference would be he moves to the outside of the full back before shooting rather than into the congested centre. And a shot from the right towards the far post has a good chance to be parried into the path of one of the players coming from the left.

We are so one dimensional moving the ball to the left that defending us becomes an easy task. The opposition left back can tuck in and defend the width of the penalty box, that anyone cutting in from the left is having to go through a wall of defenders anyway. So I feel like while maybe he wouldnt get as many chances total, the chances he would get would be clearer and lead to more second chances for the rest of the team, and just generally more space for the likes of Bruno/Pogba to operate in.

I think of the role Pedro used to play for Barca as a perfect example. He wasnt a winger, he was a right footed inside forward who played on the right as well, but had the discipline to stay wide when needed and only come inside when the moment was right.

And ultimately if we have anyone on the team who would have the right attitude to play a role they dont like for the benefit of the greater good, Rashford would be the one I'd pick.
 
Why Marcus still plays on the left? To engage in play is a proof of intelligence. Right wingers are all work and no play...

My apologies to all footballers who did their best on the right side.
Political right wingers? Your apologies will be accepted when you stop equating "inheritocracy" with "freedom".
 
Lee565 said:
having already seen ole try mata, james, greenwood (who is having a rough spell), 352 and narrow formations to try and somewhat solve our glaring right wing problem, why hasn't rashford been tried out on that side and what would exactly be disastrous about him switching wings for just this season?

We see mbappe play this position a lot for psg over the years with good success, hell even our own manager once upon time played well as right a right winger when fergie fell out with becks, with the technique rashford uses striking the ball I can't see how it would be too much of an issue for him on the right side and if you was to count on a player to produce a good cross in to the box from the right wing out of mata, james, Greenwood, martial and rashford you would choose rashford right?
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As his shooting is stronger than his crossing/passing, by playing him right wing would basically eliminate him being able to cut in and shoot.

Everytime he has played right wing in the past he has been very underwhelming similar to Martial.
 
Ekeke said:
Yep thats why I was a big fan. When he got his crosses right they led to very easy finishes and when he came inside onto his left foot he actually scored more goals with his left than his right. So he was completely ideal to play on the right.

But we played him a bunch on the left :confused:
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But he was still very good on the left. Such a versatile player!
 
Forevergiggs1 said:
I don't think crossing is one of Rashfords strong point. If he worked on it then maybe it would be an option but he's a lot more effective on the left because he likes to cut in and either look for the pass or shoot. It's his natural instinct.
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This. Rashford is a poor passer of the ball and crossing takes even more finesse. I still want to see Pogba on the right. This is a good attacking lineup:

................Martial
Rashford...Bruno....Pogba
 
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