[Zlaatan]

Bar his miss I didn't even think he was that bad considering his recent showings on the wings. To judge his talent based off of his performances out wide isn't beneficial as he isn't a winger; he's a striker. I was for trying him out wide at the start of the season but it's been as clear as day for a while that he isn't effective enough out there.

I don't think anyone is questioning his talent. He's just not been good enough lately.
We should play him as a striker in the cups and let Martial or even Memphis get a chance at LW for a while in the league and EL.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Last year he would have tucked that chance away no problem. Just shows how our fortunes are going right now! Think the pressure is showing, but it was a nice run.

 

[Zebs]

Left Darmian isolated far too often yesterday, you can tell that he doesn't enjoy playing on the wing and the defensive responsibilities that go with it. Needs to be used as an impact sub up for a while. Let Rooney, Mata and Micky/Lingard sit behind Ibra with Martial and Rashford on the bench to inject some pace when necessary.

 

[ZDwyr]

He's been poor for a while now.

 

[Cassidy]

He's been poor for a while now.

This

 

[Dobbs]

SAF used to play young players out of position all the time.

He didn't, that theory pretty much stems from Darren Fletcher. Go through the list of young players introduced and almost all of them were played in their preferred position.

 

[Treble]

For nth time, Rasford isn't a winger Jose. Stop with these crap experiments.

 

[Cassidy]

He didn't, that theory pretty much stems from Darren Fletcher. Go through the list of young players introduced and almost all of them were played in their preferred position.

Welbeck? Jones? Smalling?

 

[dellboyy]

Yeah he's not been good recently... nothing to panic about though, he's going to be inconsistent at his age. Agree with above, give him a bit of a rest and then get him back going again!

 

[Red_toad]

He didn't, that theory pretty much stems from Darren Fletcher. Go through the list of young players introduced and almost all of them were played in their preferred position.

Would disagree with that, we've seen many a centre half at right back.

Webeck was all over the place. We've also had s few without a preferred position. Managers change their approach to individual players.

 

[Scholesy]

English Macheda

 

[Robbie Boy]

English Macheda

There are literally no similarities.

 

[Devil may care]

Real Madrid - Asensio
Atletico Madrid - Correa
Man City - Iheanacho
PSG - Augustin
Bayern Munich - Coman

If you look at how other top clubs are blooding in their best young attackers you can see it's very different to the regular starter route we are going with Rashford, and I think he'd benefit from being a sub for this season with sporadic starts.

 

[Dobbs]

Welbeck? Jones? Smalling?

Was Welbeck out of position? Even today I think most believe he's a wide forward. He's certainly not a nailed on striker and for good reason.

Take your point on Jones and Smalling. However did it do them any good? I don't think it did Fletcher any either.

Also that's three players. What about the entire class of '92? All played in their correct position. Wes Brown, Lee Sharpe, Ronaldo, Rooney, all the randoms like Macheda, Curtis, Thornley etc. Breaking into the team they were all played in the position that suited them best.

 

[Yagami]

I don't think anyone is questioning his talent. He's just not been good enough lately.
We should play him as a striker in the cups and let Martial or even Memphis get a chance at LW for a while in the league and EL.

I agree he hasn't been good enough lately but I've seen quite a few posts saying he's overrated and whatnot based off of his performances out wide which, as I said, isn't really fair considering he isn't a winger.

 

[aikay]

Quite clearly not a winger. His top attributes are his Movement, pace and finishing. His dribbling is wack, pulls it off like once out of every 181883893873 attempts.

Would be nice if he could play up top with Zlatan with Martial on the left. Mata can tuck inside to make the midfield more compact since Valencia basically plays the right wing solo.

Just don't play him on the wings please. It hurts my eyes.

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

This. But the concern is that Mourinho has no interest in developing him as a striker.

Not sure I think that, but I do think he runs the risk of ruining him by playing him out of position so much, for me he needs to play as our main striker in the Europa/Carling/FA Cup, and be an impact sub in the prem, or if Jose can't offer that then he needs a loan.

 

[Snow]

Was Welbeck out of position? Even today I think most believe he's a wide forward. He's certainly not a nailed on striker and for good reason.

Take your point on Jones and Smalling. However did it do them any good? I don't think it did Fletcher any either.

Also that's three players. What about the entire class of '92? All played in their correct position. Wes Brown, Lee Sharpe, Ronaldo, Rooney, all the randoms like Macheda, Curtis, Thornley etc. Breaking into the team they were all played in the position that suited them best.

Scholes, P. Neville, Brown, O'Shea. Lee Sharpe played on both wings, Macheda has played not up top.

 

[Devil may care]

This. But the concern is that Mourinho has no interest in developing him as a striker.

If you look at how this team is set up and previous Jose sides Rashford offers pretty much none of the attributes Jose likes in a #9, that is why I think he's been hoping that he'd progress as a wide player.

 

[AN17]

Take him off the first team and play U21 for a couple of weeks.Take him away from the limelight and attention and let him enjoy a few low key matches. Then reintroduce as a striker.

 

[Dobbs]

Scholes, P. Neville, Brown, O'Shea. Lee Sharpe played on both wings, Macheda has played not up top.

You're talking about them when they were well into their careers.

We're discussing young players when they're first introduced. The names you listed above were all initially played in their actual position. Makes sense to give a young player the best possible chance to shine.

 

[Snow]

You're talking about them when they were well into their careers.

We're discussing young players when they're first introduced. The names you listed above were all initially played in their actual position. Makes sense to give a young player the best possible chance to shine.

Scholes played as a forward, Neville was everywhere and so was O'Shea. Macheda came on as a striker but later when he was given more starts it was out on the wing because he wasn't good enough to establish himself as first choice striker yet. So what did SAF do? Did he just stop playing them? No, he played them in different positions. Every manager does it. It's even more prevalent today because tactics aren't as rigid. United used to just play 4-4-2 no matter what but now you need to be more versatile.

 

[Dobbs]

Scholes played as a forward, Neville was everywhere and so was O'Shea. Macheda came on as a striker but later when he was given more starts it was out on the wing because he wasn't good enough to establish himself as first choice striker yet. So what did SAF do? Did he just stop playing them? No, he played them in different positions. Every manager does it. It's even more prevalent today because tactics aren't as rigid. United used to just play 4-4-2 no matter what but now you need to be more versatile.

Soery but your memory of this is wrong.

Scholes was a forward when he first broke through. That where he'd always played in the youth teams. Kind of proves my point. We didn't just switch him into midfield on his debut.

P Neville was always a fullback when he was younger. The switch into midfield came years later. Oshea was used all over but then that's how he remained throughout his career. His position was as a utility player.

Giggs, Sharpe and Beckham were introduced as wingers. G Neville as a fullback, Brown as a centre back. Butt in centre mid.Their actual positions.

If there's an actual reason to play them out of postion then maybe. Fletcher was used out wide because the alternative was an inconsistent Ronaldo who was a defensive liability. There was some sense to it. It didn't do anything for him personally but for the team it helped.

There is no firm, tangible reason for Rashford to be on the left when we have other options as good and actually better than him there.

 

[tomaldinho1]

It's worth noting someone like Henry was trained in a similar way if my memory serves correctly. Think in your junior years, having the skill to take people on starting from out wide translates well once you lose your electric pace as you can adapt your game (Ronaldo now) but you can't do it the other way around.

I think he should start CF in cups and be back up SS/CF in PL. Get him out the spotlight a bit and remember his body isn't even fully grown yet so have patience!

 

[Snow]

Soery but your memory of this is wrong.

Scholes was a forward when he first broke through. That where he'd always played in the youth teams. Kind of proves my point. We didn't just switch him into midfield on his debut.

P Neville was always a fullback when he was younger. The switch into midfield came years later. Oshea was used all over but then that's how he remained throughout his career. His position was as a utility player.

Giggs, Sharpe and Beckham were introduced as wingers. G Neville as a fullback, Brown as a centre back. Butt in centre mid.Their actual positions.

If there's an actual reason to play them out of postion then maybe. Fletcher was used out wide because the alternative was an inconsistent Ronaldo who was a defensive liability. There was some sense to it. It didn't do anything for him personally but for the team it helped.

There is no firm, tangible reason for Rashford to be on the left when we have other options as good and actually better than him there.

You keep dismissing where players end up playing. Scholes barely played as a forward in his career. He became one of our all-time greats in a position he didn't debut in and your argument is to not play players in a different position that they debuted in.

Utility player isn't a position. O'Shea is a CB that was played in different positions. Outside of the United first team he's been a CB. SAF was the one that shifted him about.

Sharpe played on both wings, not just the one like Beckham and Giggs. He was rotated because Giggs came into the team so he got shifted. Brown is a CB but had to play a lot at right back. Neville was a right back that had to play on the left because he was more comfortable there than other players. He also played sometimes in midfield. Solskjær was played on the wing, Johnsen both in defense and midfield, Silvestre played a lot of games at both CB and LB, Fortune played in midfield and LB, I can go on.

SAF absolutely rotated players out of position as necessary and that's not a myth.

 

[Dobbs]

You keep dismissing where players end up playing.

I'm not dismissing it it's just not what we're talking about. I'm not arguing that players were never moved around. That would be blatantly false and a ridiculous stance to take.

I only pointed out that SAF didn't mess around with a young players position. Go through all the names we've mentioned and the vast majority were played in their correct positions upon breaking through.

They didn't spend their first full season in a slot not suited to them.

 

[cesc's_mullet]

It's worth noting someone like Henry was trained in a similar way if my memory serves correctly. Think in your junior years, having the skill to take people on starting from out wide translates well once you lose your electric pace as you can adapt your game (Ronaldo now) but you can't do it the other way around.

I think he should start CF in cups and be back up SS/CF in PL. Get him out the spotlight a bit and remember his body isn't even fully grown yet so have patience!

Henry was a forward when Wenger brought him in whilst he was at Monaco in 1992. Wenger played him on the wings when he first got a taste of first-team action - due to his pace and dribbling being more effective against fullbacks.

Wenger left for Japan in 1994 though, and it seems Henry continued to be played as a winger after he left. He remained a winger for the next few years until he was moved back into a CF position once Wenger signed him at the age of 22.

 

[NoPace]

Please don't blame Rooney for Rashford poor performances, just like how last week people shouldn't have to look at Pogba, Blind and other players to blame for Rashford bad defending.

See things as they are.

The argument here is that Rashford is better through the middle, at least at this point in his career. I think he'd do well linking play in tight spaces with Ibra and Mkhitaryan and looking to get in behind. Rooney currently occupies that place in the team.

 

[bosnian_red]

Strange to sub him on today. He's shite defensively just like he's shit on the wing. Yet he came on to see out the game? Then when we conceded, we started hoofing to Rashford who is next to useless in the air. Don't blame him, but it was just a bit stupid what we did in the last 10

 

[Bojan11]

Massively overhyped on here.

Can't even do the basics right and has the strength of a schoolgirl.

He does the running out of play thing every game.

 

[Jev]

He clearly thinks he's better than he is. Tries some stuff he's not even remotely capable of.

I'm still undecided as to how big of a talent he is but he is definitely overrated.

 

[ha_rooney]

He's not a winger. Should only come on as a striker.

 

[Ferguson]

I think he looked shell-shocked and behind the pace.

He's lost some confidence which is normal in a young player.

It seemed that Mourinho was yelling at him constantly from the sideline, so that had to have been in his head.

 

[jem]

I like him as a striker, but I'd honestly rather bring on Depay or Young as a winger.

 

[Man-United]

Pointless sub to bring in. He just loses the ball all the time.

"But play him as a striker". Would he not lose the ball then?

 

[Bojan11]

He's not a winger. Should only come on as a striker.

People keep saying this.

That's no excuse for running the ball out of play in every game or having the strength of a school girl.

 

[Rossa]

He's bloody fast - not many can put Walker on their back foot, but that was an awful display. Put him as a striker in the last ten minutes, but keep Ibra on the pitch to create space, and then he will contribute.

 

[Esquire]

I think he looked shell-shocked and behind the pace.

He's lost some confidence which is normal in a young player.

It seemed that Mourinho was yelling at him constantly from the sideline, so that had to have been in his head.

Yep. He lost that bit of naive confidence now that he is being expected to deliver. Mou in his ear alot. Hitting that second year wall. Hopefully he gets more time and comes out of it soon.

 

[Bojan11]

I think he looked shell-shocked and behind the pace.

He's lost some confidence which is normal in a young player.

It seemed that Mourinho was yelling at him constantly from the sideline, so that had to have been in his head.

Mourinho yelled at him because he let one of the Spurs players nutmeg him easily.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

Looked completely off the pace and shockingly uninterested in defending, until Mourinho went ballistic on his ass. After that he at least started trying