Another striker who isn't good enough but is for some reason undroppable

[BringNaniBack]

We had it with Rooney, his form declined under the likes of Moyes and LVG but they kept him in the team every week despite him being awful in has last couple of seasons here.

Mourinho came in and finally phased Rooney out of the team. Then along came Zlatan who to be fair was half decent for us but at times was clearly the wrong man to be up front for us considering his slower style of play. But again Mourinho seemed to be reluctant to drop him.

We now have Rashford, who seems to blow hot and cold, of late it's a lot more cold than hot. His decision making is awful and I hate to say it but he is the definition of a pace merchant at the moment. He's somehow become a senior member of the squad and a mainstay in the team and you can see it's gone to his head. It's great to be confident but the way he appears to act at times you'd think he was playing like Messi.

Who the hell is letting him take freekicks? Why does he have the authority to take them over and over again, they are truely woeful.

It concerns me that yet again we have a striker that for some reason has become a first name on team sheet/undroppable for the manager. Ole needs to man up and get Rashford out if the team in his current form continues.

 

[Tarrou]

People were saying the same about Matic and Lingard before they got dropped. Ole doesn't seem afraid to drop people at all, and he already demoted Rashford to out wide remember, but in the forward line he doesn't have manny options.

 

[Hammerfell]

Do you still believe the world is flat?

 

[Pace Abuser]

There's no options.

 

[Sambob]

We don't have the luxury of dropping him because our front line is inexplicably poor. He will come good though, he has a lot of talent.

 

[kouroux]

We had it with Rooney, his form declined under the likes of Moyes and LVG but they kept him in the team every week despite him being awful in has last couple of seasons here.

Mourinho came in and finally phased Rooney out of the team. Then along came Zlatan who to be fair was half decent for us but at times was clearly the wrong man to be up front for us considering his slower style of play. But again Mourinho seemed to be reluctant to drop him.

We now have Rashford, who seems to blow hot and cold, of late it's a lot more cold than hot. His decision making is awful and I hate to say it but he is the definition of a pace merchant at the moment. He's somehow become a senior member of the squad and a mainstay in the team and you can see it's gone to his head. It's great to be confident but the way he appears to act at times you'd think he was playing like Messi.

Who the hell is letting him take freekicks? Why does he have the authority to take them over and over again, they are truely woeful.

It concerns me that yet again we have a striker that for some reason has become a first name on team sheet/undroppable for the manager. Ole needs to man up and get Rashford out if the team in his current form continues.

The manager of course, who else ?

 

[Galactico]

Great idea. Let’s play that other experienced striker we have there instead of Rashford.

 

[BringNaniBack]

People were saying the same about Matic and Lingard before they got dropped. Ole doesn't seem afraid to drop people at all, and he already demoted Rashford to out wide remember, but in the forward line he doesn't have manny options.

I hope you're right. It just seems as though 'Rashy' is the golden child and can do no wrong in Ole's eyes.

 

[BringNaniBack]

Great idea. Let’s play that other experienced striker we have there instead of Rashford.

Who said they need to be experienced. Rashford has been garbage for months. Give Greenwood a chance or even have Martial and James up top in a different system.

 

[BringNaniBack]

Do you still believe the world is flat?

Is that relevant?

 

[Hawks2008]

Local lad.

 

[harms]

Ibra was great and didn’t deserve to be dropped. Rashford doesn’t have anyone who can replace him at the moment, so it’s not like he only gets to play because of the Ole’s favoritism.

 

[BringNaniBack]

Local lad.

Exactly

 

[Bojan11]

I said it for years he was never good enough. Scores the odd goal and that. But he has a worse output than Ashley Barnes.

But everyone on the forum whenever we were linked with a striker were saying what about Rashford? Rashford is the future! He’s average with no brain and is more close to Aghbonlahor than to a elite striker.

 

[BringNaniBack]

Ibra was great and didn’t deserve to be dropped. Rashford doesn’t have anyone who can replace him at the moment, so it’s not like he only gets to play because of the Ole’s favoritism.

Greenwood?

Or a 4-4-2 diamond with James and Martial up front with extra creative players in midfield.

Though limited, there are options.

 

[Godfather]

God knows why we didn't get in Mandzukic. The guy would have been on the end of at least one of the crosses yesterday.

 

[Bojan11]

God knows why we didn't get in Mandzukic. The guy would have been on the end of at least one of the crosses yesterday.

But what about Rashford and Greenwood?

Would someone please think about the two players who haven’t proven themselves before signing a proven player.

 

[BringNaniBack]

God knows why we didn't get in Mandzukic. The guy would have been on the end of at least one of the crosses yesterday.

Even Lukaku would have scored from one of those crosses to be fair!

 

[yumtum]

Should have told his agent that Barca are welcome to him, giving a selfish player £250k a week with incentives to reach £350k was always going to result in him being less of a team player, wouldn't have been so bad if he could finish.

Rashford was a better player when he first broke through, being outshone by James should send him a clear message, but these guys are in their own dream world, where Lingard is still young, and Rashford is a good free kick taker.

 

[Moonwalker]

The fair criticism (whether of the manager or the higher ups), surely, is of the decisions that led to us having such a paucity of attacking options. To say that deciding to go into the season with Greenwood as the only option from the bench was a huge gamble is an understatement.

But now that we have made that gamble, to drop Rashford would just be adding insult to injury. If we are gonna have a prayer of finishing in the top four he has to come good.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

We don't have the luxury of dropping him because our front line is inexplicably poor. He will come good though, he has a lot of talent.

Does he?

I think we failed him just as much as he's failed us. We never kept either him or Lingard grounded and both think they've made it as professionals. I liked kid Rashford who played with a free mind and wanted to demonstrate his ability to the world.

 

[buckooo1978]

I think if Greenwood is 19 he's starting already.... Ole has already said he's a better finisher. Martial has been preferred at 9 too so I don't buy this narrative

Ole has made the right choices in terms of ditching Jones, Smalling and Matic. He dropped Lingard yesterday.

it's a disgrace how light the squad is. Its a disgrace that a club with thr resources United have is going to be relying on a 17 year old striker to step up

Can Rashford develop?

 

[Bestofthebest]

The problem is who else would come in to replace Rashford? As most people are pointing out there is nobody else in the squad. Martial is already injured after three games and also not up to scoring regularly. This only puts pressure on Rashford and he obviously is not handling it very well.

The big mistake was not getting a striker in before letting Lukaku go and it need not have been a world class player. An experienced, possibly older, player could have filled in for the time being. Finally getting rid of Lukaku in the final days of the window was a huge mistake without having a viable alternative. Sure there will be plenty on here asking me who we should have got and to be honest I don't know but I do know none of our forwards will score as many as Lukaku did, bad as he was.

 

[Bojan11]

Does he?

I think we failed him just as much as he's failed us. We never kept either him or Lingard grounded and both think they've made it as professionals. I liked kid Rashford who played with a free mind and wanted to demonstrate his ability to the world.

Fergie would never have given him that big fat contract. To be fair I doubt he would have even got in the team under Fergie. Fergie was ruthless when it came to strikers. If you weren’t scoring then you were out.

 

[kouroux]

The problem is who else would come in to replace Rashford? As most people are pointing out there is nobody else in the squad. Martial is already injured after three games and also not up to scoring regularly. This only puts pressure on Rashford and he obviously is not handling it very well.

The big mistake was not getting a striker in before letting Lukaku go and it need not have been a world class player. An experienced, possibly older, player could have filled in for the time being. Finally getting rid of Lukaku in the final days of the window was a huge mistake without having a viable alternative. Sure there will be plenty on here asking me who we should have got and to be honest I don't know but I do know none of our forwards will score as many as Lukaku did, bad as he was.

Since it was clear that we weren't gonna do that, we shouldn't have sold Lukaku in this windows. We'll pay it dearly this season

 

[edgecutter]

Rashford had to start yesterday due to a lack of options. Had we played Greenwood up top and finished with the same result, Ole would have got both barrels from the media and fans for not using our 'experienced' striker in Rashford.

The bigger issue is what to do with Rashford when Martial returns, James played well out on the left and he should remain there instead of him.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Fergie would never have given him that big fat contract. To be fair I doubt he would have even got in the team under Fergie. Fergie was ruthless when it came to strikers. If you weren’t scoring then you were out.

There was a period at the beginning of 17/18 where all our forwards were scoring at a good rate - I actually liked what Jose was doing at that point. Ole was so naive to hand him an undeserved huge contract. Not at all surprising though.

 

[red4ever 79]

He's a Manc. He gets a lot of luxury from the board and the manager. Local lad must be good enough syndrome. Clear as day he does not possess the footballing intelligence to lead the line at a big club. The board have made a grave mistake not replacing Lukaku. Honestly if Martial is fit I would play James Martial Rashford like that.

 

[Nick7]

Yesterday was the first time this season that Rashford has played up top?

 

[Bestofthebest]

Since it was clear that we weren't gonna do that, we shouldn't have sold Lukaku in this windows. We'll pay it dearly this season

This is the exact point I was making. However, can you help me out by trying to think of someone suitable, plenty of names were flashed around at the time. I agree this will cost us dearly and think it will have cost us a top half finish by Christmas.

 

[M Bison]

Absolutely despise the “local lad” comments. You really are stupid if you believe that someone plays solely because they’ve come through the youth setup.

 

[harms]

Greenwood?

Or a 4-4-2 diamond with James and Martial up front with extra creative players in midfield.

Though limited, there are options.

We don’t have any extra creative players And James has no experience of playing up front.

Greenwood is the only realistic option, but however good he is, he’s still a youngster with only a few professional games under his belt. If Rashford continues to play badly, maybe he’ll be replaced eventually, although, considering the competition for the attacking positions, we’ll probably end up with a front 4 of James, Martial, Rashford and Greenwood.

 

[redshaw]

Martial will play ahead of him and Ole likes James a lot and knows his best side before buying so I think he'll get the left spot soon hopefully. Rashford will have to make do with the right.

 

[Rockets Redglare]

We don't have the luxury of dropping him because our front line is inexplicably poor. He will come good though, he has a lot of talent.

Does he though? I really don’t see it.

 

[AshRK]

Rashford may not become a rooney or ronaldo nor is he mbappe but people forget he is still 21. He has lot to learn and we should not competely judge him this soon.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Don't see him as an out and out striker. He is a wide forward to me. Martial is our striker. Hopefully he will be back after the international break.

 

[kouroux]

This is the exact point I was making. However, can you help me out by trying to think of someone suitable, plenty of names were flashed around at the time. I agree this will cost us dearly and think it will have cost us a top half finish by Christmas.

Ben Yedder was available, he wouldn't bad off the bench and to use as a pure finisher (for Daniel James' crosses yesterday for instance). We don't have a natural "inside the box" striker in the team. They're all too similar our options. We needed someone different for sure.
Haller could have been another option and I'm sure there are other few options as well that I cannot think of. Basically a striker who can hold the ball and bring other into play. I dislike Lukaku but we should have bitten the bullet and accepted and his big transfer money wasn't the best option without replacement and that doesn't mean a CF either, we needed a versatile player.

 

[Ralph1386]

There's no options.

This. Martial was injured, who do we start as number 9? Greenwood? It's the failure in the transfer window rearing its ugly head.

 

[Garebo]

If he keeps playing like this, then he will be dropped to the bench next year. That's for sure.

The thing is that we should have an academy graduate in our starting xi, so
without Pogba, Mctominay, Rashford and Lingard how could that work?
Maybe Greenwood proves he is Messi esque but I highly doubt that.

 

[mitchmouse]

we'd have scored about 20 more goals this calendar year if Zlatan hadn't been injured. no idea how you can criticise him... oh wait, yes I can because no doubt rooney is to blame for the outbreak of WW2