[Robbie Boy]

You were talking about Marcus Rashford in a Marcus Rashford thread. Don’t be soft.

Oh softie did I upset you? Maybe you’re a Mourinho apologist? I say no to those. Anyhow, yeah softie pie, logic would dictate that young Marcus would play better under a more progressive attacking manager. A big buff rugger bugger like yourself should know that.

 

[Backrow Singer]

Oh softie did I upset you? Maybe you’re a Mourinho apologist? I say no to those. Anyhow, yeah softie pie, logic would dictate that young Marcus would play better under a more progressive attacking manager. A big buff rugger bugger like yourself should know that.

I made the point that he needs to be more consistant with his finishing in front of goal and that’s on him. Do you disagree with that?

 

[Robbie Boy]

I made the point that he needs to be more consistant with his finishing in front of goal and that’s on him. Do you disagree with that?

Ah now we are getting somewhere softie. Let’s talk about Marcus: Ok, so basically like any / all of our attacking players, I believe he’ll massively benefit from a more progressive / attacking manager, as I just alluded to. He, like others, has been stifled and restricted under Mourinho’s negative system. Some of the comments in here in recent times such as “he’s a Championship player” are utterly ridiculous. Has he got deficiencies to his game? He absolutely does but most 20 year olds do.

To be completely honest, I have no idea where he will be in 5 years. I think he’s very talented but I don’t know how good he will become. Obviously I hope he has a long successful career here but there are plenty of variables at play.

 

[Backrow Singer]

Ah now we are getting somewhere softie. Let’s talk about Marcus: Ok, so basically like any / all of our attacking players, I believe he’ll massively benefit from a more progressive / attacking manager, as I just alluded to. He, like others, has been stifled and restricted under Mourinho’s negative system. Some of the comments in here in recent times such as “he’s a Championship” player are utterly ridiculous. Has he got deficiencies to his game? He absolutely does but most 20 year olds do.

To be completely honest, I have no idea where he will be in 5 years. I think he’s very talented but I don’t know how good he will become. Obviously I hope he has a long successful career here but there are plenty of variables at play.

He’ll go up a level when he puts more of his chances into the back of the net, particularly in tight games. That’s on him.

 

[Robbie Boy]

He’ll go up a level when he puts more of his chances into the back of the net, particularly in tight games. That’s on him.

Yup, missed some bad ones the other night. Can’t wait to see how he’ll fare under someone who isn’t Mourinho.

 

[Canagel]

I found the critism of his miss v YB in midweek very unwarranted and unfair. No player has 100% strike rate and takes all their chances. It's just our misses are highlighted more due to lack of chances we create which comes down to style of football. Have you seen the likes of salah and sterling miss chances? Sterling can miss 5 chances in a game but will still score because his team create lots of chances. Our players under lot of pressure to finish the one or two chances we get . The reaction of Jose was disgrace actually . It was the 4th minute of the game That was the moment to encourage him to keep going and not let his head drop .

 

[Zlatattack]

He played okay to good. His first assist was inch perfect, but there was no way he intended that to be. His second assist came from him running away from the goal, catching a lucky break by nutmegging the closest defender, & finding Herrera trailing. Neither one of these were brilliant plays, neither one of these were drawn up. I take the fact that he still makes bad runs head down with the ball (somewhat like the second assist) as proof he just isn’t improving enough & may never.

It’s a double edge sword - he shouldn’t be man of the match, &, if he is, we currently suck worse than we realize.

People are over rating players all the time nowadays. There's this tap-in merchant called Ronaldo who's always taking penalties and people keep raving about him. Then there's this other one called Messi who only takes on half a team and scores and people call him GOAT.

 

[ROFLUTION]

I found the critism of his miss v YB in midweek very unwarranted and unfair. No player has 100% strike rate and takes all their chances. It's just our misses are highlighted more due to lack of chances we create which comes down to style of football. Have you seen the likes of salah and sterling miss chances? Sterling can miss 5 chances in a game but will still score because his team create lots of chances. Our players under lot of pressure to finish the one or two chances we get . The reaction of Jose was disgrace actually . It was the 4th minute of the game That was the moment to encourage him to keep going and not let his head drop .

Salah is pretty clinical in general. I think if you look at the stats and key chances missed Rashford has been way worse than those two percentage-wise.

 

[Lash]

Salah is pretty clinical in general. I think if you look at the stats and key chances missed Rashford has been way worse than those two percentage-wise.

Last season Salah was ridiculously clinical, think it was something like 23% conversion rate, naturally that's fallen through the floor this season. No way will Rashford get to that, but he's got to start getting to 10-12%, at least, if he wants the CF role. In comparison Kane averages around 16-18%

At least he looks like he gives a shit though.

 

[Foxbatt]

I found the critism of his miss v YB in midweek very unwarranted and unfair. No player has 100% strike rate and takes all their chances. It's just our misses are highlighted more due to lack of chances we create which comes down to style of football. Have you seen the likes of salah and sterling miss chances? Sterling can miss 5 chances in a game but will still score because his team create lots of chances. Our players under lot of pressure to finish the one or two chances we get . The reaction of Jose was disgrace actually . It was the 4th minute of the game That was the moment to encourage him to keep going and not let his head drop .

He missed more than one chance. He missed a few at least. He should have hit the target at least.

 

[roonster09]

Salah is pretty clinical in general. I think if you look at the stats and key chances missed Rashford has been way worse than those two percentage-wise.

Salah is very much average, last year was his purple patch. He was always criticized for wasting too many chances.

 

[roonster09]

I found the critism of his miss v YB in midweek very unwarranted and unfair. No player has 100% strike rate and takes all their chances. It's just our misses are highlighted more due to lack of chances we create which comes down to style of football. Have you seen the likes of salah and sterling miss chances? Sterling can miss 5 chances in a game but will still score because his team create lots of chances. Our players under lot of pressure to finish the one or two chances we get . The reaction of Jose was disgrace actually . It was the 4th minute of the game That was the moment to encourage him to keep going and not let his head drop .

Exactly. Just in yesterday's game, Auba missed 2 or 3 very good chances, one of them was just keeper to beat. It's forgotten as he gets shit lads of chances and scores one of them. Same with Kane, missed few easy ones vs Chelsea but Spurs create good number of chances.

Our players miss 1 chances and that will be repeated for a year as we create feck all. So every chance missed is a step closer to dropped points.

 

[ROFLUTION]

Salah is very much average, last year was his purple patch. He was always criticized for wasting too many chances.

I don't agree that he is very much average in finishing. I also think we have to see Salah in his new Liverpool context.

This year he has still scored 9 goals in all, which is not bad, but still above average. Was wasteful in some of the big TV-games (Chelsea, City?), and that's why this narrative somehow persists. He's still been above average this season. In comparison, in the same competitions (CL + PL) Rashford has 10 goals this season and last season.

Of course I agree that we have a lot less chances than the other teams, but Rashford would still not be on the same goal level as Salah / Auba / Sterling with his current finishing.

 

[roonster09]

I don't agree that he is very much average in finishing. I also think we have to see Salah in his new Liverpool context.

This year he has still scored 9 goals in all, which is not bad, but still above average. Was wasteful in some of the big TV-games (Chelsea, City?), and that's why this narrative somehow persists. He's still been above average this season. In comparison, in the same competitions (CL + PL) Rashford has 10 goals this season and last season.

I'm talking about Salah from Roma days. His finishing was always the issue as he always used to be in very good positions.

 

[RedEM10]

I am not his biggest fan but he was having his best game in a longgggg time (few early mistakes) before getting subbed

 

[ROFLUTION]

Alright. I've dived into the stats, to see whether Rashford would be capable of more if had a good team around him: All stats taken from FantasyFootball's stats-engine with PL games.

Rashford this season:
Big chances total: 5
Big chances missed: 4
Ratio: 80%
Minutes played: 580
Minutes pr big chance: 116

Salah this season:
Big chances total: 12
Big chances missed 8
Ratio: 67%
Minutes played: 1190
Minutes pr big chance: 99

Sterling this season:
Big chances total: 7
Big chances missed 2
Ratio: 29%
Minutes played: 1021
Minutes pr big chance: 145

Aubameyang:
Big chances total: 9
Big chances missed 3
Ratio: 33%
Minutes played: 1030
Minutes pr big chance: 114

The picture is clear. Marcus' finishing is not good enough this season. However it's still a small sample and he gets on a good amount of chances pr minute

... Last season:

Rashford last season:
Big chances total: 6 (almost the same amount as this year so far!)
Big chances missed: 3
Ratio: 50%
Minutes played: 1799
Minutes pr big chance: 300 (!)

Salah last season:
Big chances total: 43
Big chances missed 23
Ratio: 53%
Minutes played: 2905
Minutes pr big chance: 67

Sterling last season:
Big chances total: 26
Big chances missed 12
Ratio: 46%
Minutes played: 2584
Minutes pr big chance: 99

Aubameyang last season:
Big chances total: 14
Big chances missed 6
Ratio: 43%
Minutes played: 1056
Minutes pr big chance: 75

His finishing-ratio was (surprising to me) not that bad last season compared to other big players. However only getting on the end of 6 big chances last season is surprisingly bad. 300 minutes pr big chance, which is at least 3 times worse than his comparison-players. It's an important factor whether you're good at getting into these positions. It's how Salah scored so many goals last season. It just means you're able to get on the end of big chances. This could both be because of the creativity of the player and the creativity of the team.

And Roonster, you're actually right. Salah misses a lot of chances. However he's exceptionally good at getting in the right places.

But to sum it up: Rashford has missed 80% of his big chances this season and had around the same ratio last season as the "good" attackers. However he was on the end of a shockingly low amount of chances last year. This probably also tells us something about our lack of creativity of passing and also that Rashford has had a big need to to improve his off the ball play albeit not being in as advanced positions as some of the others last season. To me this really spells out the need for a passing and creative midfielder like Eriksen or maybe a more mobile attacker instead of Lukaku.

 

[Bwuk]

Rashford tries too hard because he knows he’s not first choice.

I’m convinced if he hadn’t bothered with Lukaku, and had just played Rashford upfront with Martial on the left rather than rotating and dropping them for Sanchez/Lukaku, they’d both be playing at a very high level.

 

[Bojan11]

Rashford tries too hard because he knows he’s not first choice.

I’m convinced if he hadn’t bothered with Lukaku, and had just played Rashford upfront with Martial on the left rather than rotating and dropping them for Sanchez/Lukaku, they’d both be playing at a very high level.

So basically he can’t handle the pressure of being in a big team? Trying too hard doesn’t mean you miss most your one vs ones in the past year.

 

[Bwuk]

So basically he can’t handle the pressure of being in a big team? Trying too hard doesn’t mean you miss most your one vs ones in the past year.

Young player struggling for confidence shocker.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Holds the ball up great, getting a lot better in that regard. Plays more like a number 9 than Lukaku but still he's no threat by himself.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Immense work rate today and held the ball up well.

 

[Enigma_87]

Probably our best player today. Really like his attitude.

 

[Amar__]

He deserves a lot of praise again, but probably won't get it. Running and pressing in 85th minute like he just came on to the pitch, and didn't stop until the end.

Had a very good game, and proved once again that we play so much better with him in the team ahead of Lukaku. This is the reason why people like our academy players.

 

[acnumber9]

Man of the match for me. His movement and effort is light years ahead of Lukaku’s and we’re more dangerous for it. Shame we can’t actually pass the ball to take advantage of it.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

He's a much, much, much better CF option then Lukaku

Not that that's saying much

 

[RedStarUnited]

his running is top top notch. Lukaku can learn a lot.

 

[Kush]

You can never question his desire or workrate, he's done well in last 2 matches.

I think he along with many others would benefit from a more progressive manager.

 

[Ban]

Great game by him.

 

[tomaldinho1]

The more I watch him, the more I see why he gets so frustrated. He makes a lot of runs, some really good, but no one wants to feed the ball through to him. We are happy to hoof the ball but shy away from actually trying a simple one over the top for him

 

[Sayros]

This was one of his better games. I hope this is a sign of things to come from him.

 

[Minimalist]

Personally didn't enjoy his performance at all. Too poor with his decision making. Lacking confidence perhaps.

 

[ash_86]

Wonderful game. My MOTM today. He and Martial should start every game if fit.

 

[walkinhop]

Him and Martial need to start Matic-style.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Held up the ball well. Good performance, however Arsenal’s defence is about as good as ours, appalling so I’m not sure how much we can read from it!

 

[UncleBob]

It's impossible not to love his workrate, but i'm not overly impressed by the rest of it.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

If he was more of a goal threat, he would be fantastic. He's a great player for a 2 man striker system but we can't afford to accommodate that at all.

 

[Red_Aaron]

During this period he's been the only one running his heart out and leaving it all on the pitch.
He's still a kid too btw I think far too many of us forget that sometimes There's a huge number of vastly more experienced pros in our squad who are letting this lad shoulder too much responsibility.
Marcus can still improve of course but he's the least of our worries

 

[Ace of Spades]

Great effort by him again. Looked more lively in the dying minutes than the subs.

 

[bosnian_red]

Love the kid. He's not perfect, but you can't fault the effort he gives. Playing him next to Martial with the 2 of them up top together is great to see too, and it brings the best out of both of them IMO. Hope we push on with that, definitely our best long term approach.

 

[Devil may care]

Lots of workrate and movement, if he could just bag a couple he might get on a roll.