Plenty of spaces to exploit, did well as usual.
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 44
- Goals
- 22
- Assists
- 8
- Yellow cards
- 4
- Status
Maybe more appropriate to say that he will never be a Jose Mourinho style number 9 like Lukaku or Zlatan or Drogba.
And Aubameyang truly transformed into a consistent goalscorer when he hit 22 years old.
Not true at all. There is a difference between not rating him and not seeing a player in a certain position. Even Eto'o wasn't in the right mould to be a Mourinho #9.
Still not convinced that he rates Rashford? Then go to 8:30 on the below video. Other than this he has always mentioned that he thinks Rashford's potential is frightening.
"What I love in this kid Marcus is that he copes with the pressure, I can press him, I can be very demanding of him and he's the kind of kid that the training session finishes but it doesn't finish for him. He wants more, he lives for football. He was a tornado when he arrived without no pressure and when the pressure was on him and not scoring goals he coped with the pressure. This is the kind of character I like, I like to squeeze the player to cope and react, for me it is more difficult the players with the fragile mentality, they are the weakness for me, players who have a different mentality to me."
I would go as far as saying that was his best performance I've seen from him for United, certainly up there (guess you have to included Liverpool H in 2018 too). Very mature performance. All of the battles with Matip and Van Dijk have been getting attention but the most promising part of his game was that movement for the goal to lose Matip - was like watching Chicharito.
The game just highlights what his strengths are I.e running at defenders, dribbling and using the channels effectively. I'm really hoping that with martial playing at CF and James on the right, we would once again see the best of rashford. He's clearly not a CF and seems to love having some grass ahead of him to be able to terrorize even the best of defenders.
Martial otoh is significantly better in terms of touch and finishing.
Martial otoh is significantly better in terms of touch and finishing.
Agreed. That sort of movement hasn't been in his game for a while.
Whether it was because Dan James is a simple player in the sense he runs and crosses ASAP, doesn't cut back and step over etc. He knew the ball would be coming in so made a proper run.
His all round game was just better. No silly touches, no dribbles out of touch or very loose and losing control.
I think it's fair to say Rashford has a big game mentality and has to be challenged. He's had it too easy at United and no surprise his best form was when it was him v Martial for the LW spot, or him v Lukaku for the CF
Partizan 0:1 Man Utd
Pass the ball Marcus
Ideally he shouldn't have played.
I missed the game after he came on but regardless of his performance out there I'm going to give him a pass today if he had an off game.
With the midfield that was out there I'm willing to be forgiving to some of our attackers. The midfield was simply tragic. Also all these cries for Garner to play and he was just sad to watch.
With the midfield that was out there I'm willing to be forgiving to some of our attackers. The midfield was simply tragic. Also all these cries for Garner to play and he was just sad to watch.
He was our best attacker, actually the only one who knew how to control the ball so I don't see the much point of this bump. He also had more touches in 30 minutes than Martial had in 60 minutes. Also probably covered more pitch than anyone else on the pitch during that period.
Looked to me like he ran straight down the tunnel as soon as the whistle went as the rest of the team went to the travelling fans.
Didn't look like he was injured when he was playing, hopefully he just really needed a poo
Didn't look like he was injured when he was playing, hopefully he just really needed a poo
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Actually took the heat off the team a bit when he came on which was pleasing. Was at least getting involved.
Good cameo from him. Playing Left really suits him well. Hoping to see him, Martail and James start together.
What?
I don't get why anyone would be negative about his contribution tonight. Looked a class above any of our other attackers immediately.
He looked much better than he has looked for months now. I really hope we can start Rashford, Martial and James next game and see how it goes.
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Rash Bandicoot 
That was exactly the right thing to do in that situation. If he passes and we shoot and miss (more likely than not) then we turn the ball over to the opposition and they can attack. We retained the ball after that run for most of injury time IIRC.
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When two players are absolutely in the clear? I have to disagree.
Also, it's not so much that it was the end of the game, Rasfhord often does this in all periods of matches. He needs better coaching to make more appropriate decisions.
Yes, even then. They'd still receive the ball pretty far out from goal and there are defenders about so they'd still have a bit of work to do. If it was 5 minutes earlier I'd agree but in that situation the retention of possession was more important and helped us see out the game comfortably. I' not saying he has great vision or anything but that was a really good piece of play from him in the context of the game.
Okay I can agree to that for this particular instance, but would you also not agree that Rashford needs better awareness of what's around him generally? You could pick up examples from almost any game in which he runs with the ball into a dead end. But then again, the whole team is poorly coached in any semblance of an attacking pattern.
Maybe if it's a bit of a hit and hope but not when it's a clear 1v1 if he looks up and plays the pass. We have to have the confidence to play those.
Don't think it's such a bad decision given our away form, it's important to win in order to improve confidence.
I'm more amused by Lingard positioning, given how he looks up and sees where James is going and he still manages to head into the exact same space when he should be opening space up.
I'm more amused by Lingard positioning, given how he looks up and sees where James is going and he still manages to head into the exact same space when he should be opening space up.
I agree that he plays with his head down too much, the whole team does.
Any manager would be absolutely delighted with a player dribbling the ball the entire length of the pitch in injury time and retaining possession in a European away game when they're 1-0 up. It takes the pressure off the defence, allows the team to move up the pitch and punctures the oppositions momentum for a grandstand finish with the crowd hyped up. It was the right thing to do tactically.
You’re right, and we did. We kept it until the ref blew the final whistle. It wasn’t even a clear cut passing option there so yeah, agenda driven nonsense. He’s often guilty of those mistakes, but this certainly wasn’t one.
Really?
This guy, eh. Biggest Pogba stan I have ever seen. Listening to him, you would think Pogba was Charlton, Robson and Scholes rolled into one. Goes the 'AFTV' route by ranting on social media and comes off as a massive cnut.
Rashford and James have no spatial awareness and just put their head down and run. But I have no issue in this case, as everyone was misplacing simple passes yesterday. The midfield was so open that Belgrade came into our box within 3 or 4 seconds of us losing possession on the other end of the pitch.
And what the hell is Bandicoot anyway? Is is like a london slang word?
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I usually agree with what that Rants fella say on Twitter but he's off the mark with this one. It was deep in injury time and Rashford did the right thing by trying to run the clock down the best he could.
So, he can’t improve his technique to Aguero’s level, but can improve his finishing to Aubameyang’s level?! I know touch and technique are hard, but if finishing was just a matter of practice, every striker would be a top striker.
I am pretty neutral on Rants, he is right sometimes but he does flip-flop a lot. However, this tweet really has to be seen in context of what Rashford has been like as a player and how his development has stagnated.
Without a doubt and if you browse through my posts here you'll see that I've been a fierce critic of Rashford. What I'm trying to say here is in that specific instance, he comes across to me as nitpicking just to prove his point.
Fair enough.
Agreed, Rashford actually showed awareness of the situation there. Rants just talking shit in that instance. Although I think Rashford is eventually not going to be good enough to start for a top club. People expecting him to improve are going to be disappointed. He'd be a very good sub though to let loose on tired defenders. If he wants to be a starter then he should go to a lower club where he's not expected to play against low block.
Yes, really. Rashford doesn’t have that pretty difficult final pass in his locker, and it was overtime. Partizan had several dangerous counters in the match. From a tactical perspective he did the right thing.
He might have done the right thing tactically, but that's not (or should not be) a difficult pass for a United player. The more relevant point is that he did not even look up to see if the pass was on.
Should have, would have, could have. You’ve watched the same team as me, so you should know that wasn’t an easy opportunity. The defenders also covered the two runs pretty well (or, conversely, Lingard and James make it easy by making the exact same run, in the same space). Even with all this in mind, he does look up, at the exact moment that joker pauses the video. I have no problem with fair criticism, I dish out my fair share, this however, is just looking for something to call him out on.
*facepalm
Maybe change the question slightly, do you think Rashford did that because he wanted to run the clock down in possession, or he just didn't see what was around him? I'd bet a lot of money it was the latter.
That was an appalling bit of play. How can you try and spin that claiming it was the right thing to is baffling. We were 1:0 and on the brake that could have sealed the win, keep the ball instead of trying to score another? Give me a brake.
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