It reminds me of Walcott who once prefered on the wing, then as a striker and finally on the wing.
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And when he was played on the left, people said CF was his natural position. He has shown zero development since he was 18, which is troubling to put it mildly
This has been pissing me off. The manager is one of our most deadly former strikers. Is he not sitting him in front of a replay pointing out where he should be? Are they not drilling into the kid how to be a better striker? Because it's getting worse and worse
See also Rooney is his last days. Striker, 10, CM, and stinking up the place in every one of those positions.
Rashford is in such a bad form these days, he needs to be dropped. He hardly made a run. I question his mentality. Seems to think he's too good for hard work and graft. Always wanting the ball at his feet etc etc.
Absolutely spot on.
Noticed it yesterday MASSIVELY. Worst case yet.
Never used to believe all these shite pundits when they spoke about players coming “alive in the box” but yesterday there was a cross in from the left (think it was dan James?) and Rashford just stood off a defender in the middle of the box. If he’d ran two yards forward he’d have won a header but he wanted the ball right on top of him.
He makes no runs and has no instinct for goalscoring from crosses or second balls in the box
He has no business as a number 9 and it’s terrifying that we have -nobody else- after that summer.
Was atrocious yesterday. The only decent thing he did was run at full speed and make a challenge in the second half. Finally been exposed as not good enough for a striker, the only other place left for him is left wing. Even then I would rather James there. 200k p/w for this no wonder we are sinking. 4th highest wage bill in world football and here is one of the reasons why.
Unfortunately on his wage we're stuck with him and club will find it difficult to bench that kind of investment... Basically we have shot ourselves in the foot.
There is a crazy fascination in English football that the best players play through the middle and attacking players playing out wide is akin to playing them in goal.
Never a striker, Doesn't gamble in the box. Spent a lot of yesterday walking which is unforgiveable. When Martial is back he needs to shifted wide.
One of the reasons why it was a good idea to leave the UK. Fecking bias in England towards English players. He's shite as a striker
'I feel sorry for Rashford. He's starting to despair in what's around him... that team is AWFUL': Alan Shearer and Martin Keown concerned by striker's plight at struggling Manchester United
'I feel sorry for Rashford. He's starting to despair in what's around him... that team is AWFUL': Alan Shearer and Martin Keown concerned by striker's plight at struggling Manchester United
You do realise he played all his youth career out wide before you start blaming Jose.
He can’t score and barely moves off the ball. He can’t head a ball and backs out of any 50/50. He’d never be a good striker.
He had his little three month period but this is the norm. Cisse for Newcastle had a period where he looked unplayable but once teams worked him out he didn’t do shit. It’s the same with Rashford. I’d love to be a defender against him because all I know is he’s going to be a kick and run merchant,so just back away from him. Let him screw up himself.
Yes but at least Rooney played great at those positions bar CM for long periods of time
It's this crazy obsession with stats,players who aren't natural goalscorers somehow wanna force themselves into becoming one. Rashford isn't a striker, he doesn't have the natural instinct nor movement of one. It has nothing to do with age either, it's just not his position. Absolute madness that our club thought him, Martial and Greenwood were enough options.
+10000 specially the part in bold. Good runs inside the box can be taught but Rashford doesn't even do the most basic ones to give an option for the rare times our wide players are in space to make deliveries
That is because he was treated like shit the moment Ole stepped a foot in. Rashford dislodged him as #9 straight away and Lukaku continued to play 2nd fiddle before earning his place back in the side. He scored 3 braces in a week (Southampton, Palace and PSG) but after missing a sitter the following week at Arsenal he was dropped immediately.
Ole can speak all about Lukaku's poor attitude and how he shouldn't be here but he was the one who created a scenario and allowed it to happen. Ole's immediate treatment of Fellaini and Lukaku told us few things which we didn't think a lot of, at the time. He got rid of those two as they weren't a 'United player', a term which had been bandied for years and years to describe those two.
Now, you have Ole telling us that we are a striker short and it doesn't take 'rocket science' to understand that. Funny, how days after selling Lukaku and Sanchez he was happy telling us how we have two young players in Martial and Rashford ready to score bulk of goals, and a prospect in Greenwood whose gametime he doesn't want to impede by buying a new striker... 6 weeks later we're going for the same 33yo striker who wasn't even on our shortlist until few days before the window closed
It's just clueless and shambolic management.I agree with all of that. It smacks of pure delusion to think we'd be fine without replacing Lukaku, our attack wasn't that amazing with him in it anyway.That is because he was treated like shit the moment Ole stepped a foot in. Rashford dislodged him as #9 straight away and Lukaku continued to play 2nd fiddle before earning his place back in the side. He scored 3 braces in a week (Southampton, Palace and PSG) but after missing a sitter the following week at Arsenal he was dropped immediately.
Ole can speak all about Lukaku's poor attitude and how he shouldn't be here but he was the one who created a scenario and allowed it to happen. Ole's immediate treatment of Fellaini and Lukaku told us few things which we didn't think a lot of, at the time. He got rid of those two as they weren't a 'United player', a term which had been bandied for years and years to describe those two.
Now, you have Ole telling us that we are a striker short and it doesn't take 'rocket science' to understand that. Funny, how days after selling Lukaku and Sanchez he was happy telling us how we have two young players in Martial and Rashford ready to score bulk of goals, and a prospect in Greenwood whose gametime he doesn't want to impede by buying a new striker... 6 weeks later we're going for the same 33yo striker who wasn't even on our shortlist until few days before the window closed
Get the replacement first and then sell him, that's how it should have been done and this has nothing to do with hindsight. Some things are just way too easy to predict
I agree with you. But it is pretty unlucky that the first choice option has only been fit for 3 games this season.
The problem is they looked at this the same way they've looked at most of their affairs at the club, from a financial point of view. To be able to recoup most of the Lukaku fee they've paid after his bad run of form AND clear his salary from the wage bill, huge positives for them worthy of putting this season on the rocks because Rashy and Martial might come through.
They'll argue that keeping a player against his will is not a positive thing for the team, but the real reason is they were worried his value would plummet more (that's without them taking into account how inept OGS would make the team look this season).
You can keep a player that wants to leave like PSG has habitually done when you don't care about financial success as much as on-field, and it also helps if you know those that come knocking today for that player will come knocking next summer as well. The risk of Lukaku further decreasing his value while eating a chunk of the wage bill is what caused all of this. I'm not saying it was the right thing, but that's how they chose to go about it. I also don't think there are a lot of good strikers rushing to play 90 minutes for United without a clear chance to latch on to for most, if not all of the game.
Even if Martial stayed fit, it still was a crazy gamble. He's never played extended period of time as a striker and yes he can score goals but there are no guarantees he'd do it to an extent enough for our goals (let's say 20-25 goals all season long). We went into this season with more uncertainty
I understand your analysis from their POV. It shows us, once more, we have the wrong people at the helm of the club. The priorities are just completely wrong.
Lukaku interested Juve and Inter, like seriously interested them all summer long up until the last days.
Yes. One injury and we are down to Greenwood who had never even played a championship game.
It’s lunacy
Too much money, too soon.
How's the 0.012% conversion rate going?
And this. From a low profile hard working kid improving his game to a fecking clown participating in 'who's dressed better' videos with the other fecking clown.
Yea I remember some people said that when he was played on the left by Mourinho.
Yep. Piled on the hype on a kid, giving him superstar status when he hasn't done anywhere near enough to justify it.
Is it? It's hardly a surprise that half our team are injured by October. It happens every year.
I laughed when it was mooted that Barca wanted him for around 90-100million
I wish we'd taken it
I dont know what people expect of Rashford right now. We could have fat Ronaldo up top and it wouldn't matter. It must be soul destroying watching the players behind him pass it backwards and sideways, to have no movement in and around him to create space. There's not even the intent to play a penetrative pass anymore. It took us about 20 passes just to reach the final third yesterday, and that was against a team that didn't even have the intention to press high up.
That’s very different. In the academy all players move around and try different positions. By the time he got to the first team he was a striker - and doing well.
compare his first season with how he plays now, it’s a night and day difference. He actually did striker things before, but naturally drifted wide to take on people 1v1. At 18 he looked insanely talented I thought we’d found the new Brazilian Ronaldo
how wrong was I. look at his goal away to West Ham, he’d get nowhere near scoring that anymore.
I'm no fan of Rashford by any means, but I have to defend that point of view. At the time, Rashford showed good instincts of a striker. He would often find himself in good positions to score, he seemed to have a knack for being at the right place when the ball was in a dangerous position for the opposition. His problem was finishing. I never thought he had the skills to be on the wing because once defense adjust to his speed, he doesn't have much else to fall back on, but at least at striker, if he could work on his finishing, and the team was good at creating danger around the opposition's box, he could be an interesting prospect.
It's certainly a lot of 'if's but, not only that, he has now seemed to have lost his capacity of being at the right place and at the right time. His injury or bad recovery is not a valid explanation for that. Even limping you can find yourself being at least close to those dangerous positions, but he's yards off or simply not even in the danger zone. His one quality he seemed to have is gone and that's not a physical quality but a mental one. There's no excuse for that. He can rest, sit, recover, but he's a long way off from being someone who will ever live up to the contract he was given. I don't blame him one bit for taking advantage of the situation to earn himself a life-changing salary, but shame on the people in charge who have allowed this to happen, because it will be thrown at his face more and more as he's burning that 'academy lad' goodwill.
And that Chongy and jamesy would some how become Giggs in his pomp.
All is not lost, maybe Elanga can score 20 goals for us.....if not someone said there is a lad in the u16s that had a good game a few weeks back.
If your talking about his chance conversion rate, it isnt
A terrible, awful, horrendous footballer in every possible way, and that’s all there is to it. The people making excuses for him are hilarious. They’d be screaming to put his head on a pike if he wasn’t English. Most overhyped player with the worst football IQ I have ever seen in my life who offers absolutely nothing.
You nailed it. The English ex players and fans making excuses for him weekly are embarrassing.
When he's on the wing and sucking with no ability to take on his man once they account for his speed, people scream he's a striker, sell Lukaku and play him up front.
When he's upfront and scoring once in 18, people say he should be on the wing.
Some poster was saying hes's the second best young player behind Mbappe just a few weeks ago, and people are still banging on about being 21/22 and his non existent talent.
Another guy was saying he's living his dream and other nonsensical stuff.
He is a terrible footballer, fit to play in the championship.
This is the most damning thing for me regarding Ole. Extremely poor squad management. He should have come in and boosted everyone mentally. The pattern with the glazers has been some investment but not enough to properly build teams. He was naive to think differently for a manager with none of the pedigree of the previous three. You sign a replacement and you get rid of. We could all see we were a striker short and the excuse of getting rid of people who didn’t want to be here doesn’t hold any water as I don’t think anyone realistically believes Pogba still wants to be at United. You can’t talk about philosophy and having a plan to rebuild and then 5 weeks later tell us the same things we already said to you about being short in areas. There is no plan. January will see us bring in maybe a stop gap striker over the age of 32 and then the summer will be spent on trying to convince pogba to stay because while he is a hit or miss player at times he is our only real superstar from a marketing perspective.That is because he was treated like shit the moment Ole stepped a foot in. Rashford dislodged him as #9 straight away and Lukaku continued to play 2nd fiddle before earning his place back in the side. He scored 3 braces in a week (Southampton, Palace and PSG) but after missing a sitter the following week at Arsenal he was dropped immediately.
Ole can speak all about Lukaku's poor attitude and how he shouldn't be here but he was the one who created a scenario and allowed it to happen. Ole's immediate treatment of Fellaini and Lukaku told us few things which we didn't think a lot of, at the time. He got rid of those two as they weren't a 'United player', a term which had been bandied for years and years to describe those two.
Now, you have Ole telling us that we are a striker short and it doesn't take 'rocket science' to understand that. Funny, how days after selling Lukaku and Sanchez he was happy telling us how we have two young players in Martial and Rashford ready to score bulk of goals, and a prospect in Greenwood whose gametime he doesn't want to impede by buying a new striker... 6 weeks later we're going for the same 33yo striker who wasn't even on our shortlist until few days before the window closed
Annoying thing, when we played Greenwood he played Dan James as No. 9
His movement in the box is awful, he just stands there and expects the ball to come straight to him. No point putting a cross in either because he can't head it. He's much better on the wing, he is not a striker.
To be honest, every manager has few preferences on the type of players they like. Ole is no exception to that, he didn't like Lukaku? Fair enough, but at least identify a replacement before sanctioning the sale? The thing which gives his clueless management away is that we were linked with absolutely no CF all summer long when it was evident that Lukaku was on his way. Links to Sean Longstaff, Maguire, Wan Bissaka surfaced even before James rumors and through out the summer we were constantly linked to these players by credible journos. But nothing on CF front, there were a report in Le Equipe on Ben Yedder but that was it.
Only time we were actually negotiating a deal with a CF was when Juventus offered us a swap deal for Lukaku. That was a hail-mary as we were being offered a player in Dybala who was absolute top quality. But THEN Ole decides, hey how about Mandzukic too? Can we have him as well. I mean... take out the muppetry involved in that Dybala-Lukaku swap plus Manduzkic and it just reeks of bad management and poor recruitment strategy. The player was never on our agenda until he became available (because if he were, we'd have known about lucrative wage demands and troublesome image rights) but we wanted both anyway. In the end when it was apparent that neither are coming, we decide to sell Lukaku anyway. If that wasn't enough we decide to loan Sanchez out AFTER the window had closed
I mean, the writing was on the wall back then also but too many folks lapped up 'he's clearing out the deadwood'. No he wasn't, he was simply reshaping the squad according to his preference and in the process also contributed to 'deadwood' for next manager by renewing likes of Young, Jones, Pereira and Mata.
I’m his biggest fan but it’s getting to the point where it’s hard to defend him.
We are so shit that he touched the ball not once in the first 10 minutes of the game. That’s more the fault of our lack of quality, but his lack of effort just annoyed me yesterday. He just jogged around most of the time. When you compare his effort yesterday to for example the Arsenal home game last Season where he ran his socks of up top, this is night and day. If you are short of confidence and out of form, the minimum you can
do is to fight and give your all for the shirt! He didn’t do that yesterday and that’s really disappointing.
Shearer also made a good point: Yesterday he did the same Number 9 basic things wrong as two weeks ago against WestHam. Has anybody talked to him about this things? Why don’t we see a minimum of improving when he is coached from a past worldclass striker? Is Ole that shit at coaching or is Rashford just not able to show what Ole tries to teach him? Very worrying.
I’m not sure what would be better for him during the national break: To be dropped from the England lineup so he wakes up and understands that he has to fight and show passion otherwise his England place is sailing away or for him to perform and score a goal or even two to get his confidence back.
We are so shit that he touched the ball not once in the first 10 minutes of the game. That’s more the fault of our lack of quality, but his lack of effort just annoyed me yesterday. He just jogged around most of the time. When you compare his effort yesterday to for example the Arsenal home game last Season where he ran his socks of up top, this is night and day. If you are short of confidence and out of form, the minimum you can
do is to fight and give your all for the shirt! He didn’t do that yesterday and that’s really disappointing.
Shearer also made a good point: Yesterday he did the same Number 9 basic things wrong as two weeks ago against WestHam. Has anybody talked to him about this things? Why don’t we see a minimum of improving when he is coached from a past worldclass striker? Is Ole that shit at coaching or is Rashford just not able to show what Ole tries to teach him? Very worrying.
I’m not sure what would be better for him during the national break: To be dropped from the England lineup so he wakes up and understands that he has to fight and show passion otherwise his England place is sailing away or for him to perform and score a goal or even two to get his confidence back.
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Instinctive player, who somehow has lost all his instincts.
His technical abilities (apart from striking) have also noticeably regressed over last two years.
His technical abilities (apart from striking) have also noticeably regressed over last two years.
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It's hard to judge a striker's movement based on the TV camera angle unless the ball is in the final 3rd of the pitch. Professional teams will have camera angles (Sky use them for analysis occasionally) where you can see the entire pitch, and these are the angles that will truly define how good a striker's movement is.
Rashford, when playing centrally, should be looking to stretch the pitch as much as possible with runs in behind. As any of you who have ever played CB at a decent level before will know, the smart strikers come short with a couple of steps then dart in behind. Timing is everything when making that kind of run. You have to make your initial run as your teammate is receiving the ball, then making the 2nd run in behind when they are in position to play the pass in behind.
Now, we don't know for definite that Rashford isn't doing this off camera and he just isn't being played in by his teammates. The reverse could also be true, whereby the midfielders are looking for this run and they aren't making it. If a team plays with a low block then the ball in behind from a central area is very difficult but it should, in theory create spaces inbetween defense the lines for good creative midfielders to take advantage of. We don't have any of these though.
What we do know for definite is that Rashford just doesn't score enough 'crap' goals. As others have touched on, he just doesn't have a knack for being in the right areas for scrappy goals.
Rashford, when playing centrally, should be looking to stretch the pitch as much as possible with runs in behind. As any of you who have ever played CB at a decent level before will know, the smart strikers come short with a couple of steps then dart in behind. Timing is everything when making that kind of run. You have to make your initial run as your teammate is receiving the ball, then making the 2nd run in behind when they are in position to play the pass in behind.
Now, we don't know for definite that Rashford isn't doing this off camera and he just isn't being played in by his teammates. The reverse could also be true, whereby the midfielders are looking for this run and they aren't making it. If a team plays with a low block then the ball in behind from a central area is very difficult but it should, in theory create spaces inbetween defense the lines for good creative midfielders to take advantage of. We don't have any of these though.
What we do know for definite is that Rashford just doesn't score enough 'crap' goals. As others have touched on, he just doesn't have a knack for being in the right areas for scrappy goals.
Maybe not outside the box as much as edge of the box- from around 15-18 yards out
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