Was thinking about Rashford this morning and I do think it's mostly mental.
Let's look at the big picture:
- Rashford started his upward trend after Martial and Pogba got injured.
- Martial gets healthy and Bruno comes in, but then Rashford gets injured.
- All this time, Greenwood starts ramping up.
- COVID lockdown happens.
- Rashford gets healthy, so does Pogba.
- They come back, but now the entire dynamic of the front six is different.
I think Rashford hasn't figured out how he fits in with a healthy Martial and Pogba, Bruno, and a hot Greenwood. Add to that the fear instilled from a fractured spine, regardless of recovery. I still like what I'm seeing from him effort-wise, but once he gets up close, he's unsure of his role. Little doubt in my mind that Ole will work these wrinkles out.
That's a bit of an exaggeration, Rashford started the season above average same with Martial, Martial gets injured and it is revealed to us that Rashford cannot actually play as a centre forward because he was terrible there, I thought he would be a better centre forward than Martial but I guess I was wrong.
Rashford was really a non factor during the period that Martial was injured, then Martial comes back and Rashford catches fire! Coincidence, I very much doubt it, because he links up better with Martial than any other player on the team, and when he got injured and Utd lost to Burnley and Liverpool badly and Martial was terrible in those games, obviously he missed Rashford and you could tell because he could not really link up with anybody else on the team as well as he did with Rashford.
But then we had that practice game in the FA Cup against Tranmere to rebuild our confidence, and a win against city in the second leg of the league cup, and then Bruno came into the line up and Martial's game went up a level, and then we had the restart and it has gone up a couple of levels since then, but Rashford does not seem to have been able to connect with the other players the same way he still has that great connection with Martial, but I'm just waiting for him to start running at full backs again because it does not seem like he has the confidence to do it, and I'm, not going to speculate on his injury because he's a professional and if he's not fit then he should not play I think its a weak trying to make excuses for his performance blaming it on an injury, if people don't actually know the facts.
He is match fit and available for selection so I expect to see the Marcus Rashford that terrifies full backs and I really expected him to link up better with Pogba, Bruno and Mason but he just has not been able to and it just seems even though I don't want to think it, he was our best player with Martial when Pogba was injured but now that we have Bruno, Mason has emerged and Pogba is fit again, Marcus seems to be hiding and doing the barest of minimum passing backwards and sideways and sometimes a pass over the top that has been decent but that's not the Marcus Rashford I know and I just want to see the old Marcus again and once he can link up properly with the rest of that front five, the sky is the limit.