[Borys]

He reminds you of Ronaldo at Madrid? He is not even 10% of what Ronaldo was at Madrid.

This is correct, but the point still stands, if he remains our star player we will need to adjust the team to him.

 

[redshaw]

When Andy Cole came to the club he became a well rounded player.

I believe if Pep had to use Rashford, day 1 he'd be forcing him to work on his passing/holding and tracking back and would be much improved by now, Pep knows how poor he is with his comments in the FA Cup final about him not being able to keep the ball.

 

[TMDaines]

When the thread descends into crying about Rashford creating fewer chances than Elanga in the 2021/22 annus horribilis, then it is time to follow Carl Anka’s often repeated advice.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[DomM]

Rashford must be one of the laziest at the club, his work off the ball is atrocious, he may occasionally be dangerous with it but players need to realise that they have to work hard off the ball otherwise it's all pointless. Brighton simply passed their way through us for their goals as some players put in no effort without the ball, which I find totally unacceptable.
If certain players think hard work is below them they shouldn't be playing, simple as that, replace them with players who are prepared to put in the effort.

 

[stw2022]

He was the only one looking dangerous yesterday but his off the ball work is Ronaldo esque bad. Unacceptable really. How are you going to build a pressing machine with players like that?

He was only one looking dangerous as he was taking on everything himself. Out of everything we created yesterday Rashford had 9 shots, Hojlund had 1.

He doesn't allow anyone in the team to look dangerous. He has more shots that others in the league bar Haaland yet has just one goal and is 2nd the most dispossessed player in the league.

He shoots when there are better options and when he can't shoot he simply loses possession. This mantle he has of 'most dangerous' player for us is a complete myth.

We'd be exponentially more dangerous without him sucking up the vast majority of our attacks with his selfishness

 

[NotChatGPT]

I can only hope @Cassidy is as eager to defend the rest of our players.

In terms of tracking back, there’s two points to make:
Rashfords average position is usually further forward than anyone else, to no surprise that’s also the case against Brighton. It’s not much of a surprise that after the crucial goals he scored last season, we’re trying to consistently find him in the positions where he’s most likely to create/score. As a result, he won’t track back as much as say Antony, which is only natural given the role he has in the team and what is no doubt a part of Ten Hags strategy.

However, what you do expect is that his pressing is on point when the opposition has the ball close to him, close down passing lanes and don’t allow them time on the ball. I’d say he usually fails miserably here.

Yes, some of the stuff thrown at him is over the top, but i honestly can’t grasp how someone can look at that match, even watch it in replay, and come to the conclusion he’s done well. We consistently tried to get the ball to him in positions where he could cause Brighton trouble and i’d say we were good at it for the vast majority of the first half. Rashford had 9 shots, that is one shot less than all of Brightons attempts and they scored 3 goals and could’ve easily had 4 considering their one on one with Onana. Now, if Rashford was the only attacking player up front and we were desperate for him to do something on his own, those numbers would make sense, but that’s not the case. So many situations where he’d have great options for passes, Reguilon on an overlap with space in behind, Højlund making runs in behind, players available outside the box, and the usual outcome is that he either tries to go past one too many players or he tries to shoot. You can accept a certain level of selfishness, especially if we’re several goals up, but consistently being selfish when it’s 0-0, when we’re down a goal, when we’re down two goals is simply unacceptable at this level. It’s a numbers game and you go for probability, consistently going for individual glory won’t get us anywhere.

Again, you can only look at Brightons goals and the awareness the players have. They look up to see where the teammates are positioned and play as a unit rather than individuals, risk reward. Reverse yesterday and give Brighton similar situations as we had in the first and second half, do you think they’d walk off the pitch with only one goal? I doubt it. Would we have scored 3? No way.

Even the decision making for the goal that was disallowed was shambolic. He had several passing options, there’s no need to continue attempting to go past players and narrowing the angle more and more. Even if the pass doesn’t make it to the intended player, just hitting a ball into the most dangerous area in front of goal increases the likelyhood of someone getting a touch and the ball ending up in the back of the net.

Needs to improve his decision making

He reminds me of Ronaldo at Madrid. As brilliant as he was, it required the whole team to be adjusted to him. When Madrid was attacking, Ronaldo used to do some stepovers and if the opportunity to run with the ball didn't arise, he would just pass it to defenders and go back to starting position. You very rarely saw him do anything in the buildup (even 1-2s), and you never saw him do anything off the ball.
Madrid got very lucky with Benzema as he needed to adjust his game to accommodate for Ronaldo, and he did it amazingly well.

Ronaldo had several stages at Madrid, up until the point where he was «only» banging in a shitload of goals with Benzema playing second fiddle. In his initial years there he was a completely different player in a very different role, being both a creative part of the team and goalscorer. Either way, for the majority of the time he was miles above 99,9% of the rest of the players in the world. Ronaldo’s role was earned by pretty much completely dominating the league and it was also a case of longevity at the highest level when he wasn’t able to play the same way as he used to. It’s not like his later years at Juventus and Manchester United, where you sacrifice everything else to consistently try to get the ball to him in front of goal.

 

[stw2022]

When Andy Cole came to the club he became a well rounded player.

I believe if Pep had to use Rashford, day 1 he'd be forcing him to work on his passing/holding and tracking back and would be much improved by now, Pep knows how poor he is with his comments in the FA Cup final about him not being able to keep the ball.

I'm not sure it's bad technical coaching that's to blame for the player he is now as much as man management. He used to press and play like this wasn't a chore. This seemed to change in the period he became the Mancunian Princess Diana.

 

[kaku06]

When Andy Cole came to the club he became a well rounded player.

I believe if Pep had to use Rashford, day 1 he'd be forcing him to work on his passing/holding and tracking back and would be much improved by now, Pep knows how poor he is with his comments in the FA Cup final about him not being able to keep the ball.

Have no idea, what did pep say?

 

[Swiss_Red89]

He is being criticised for alot more than that.

Yeah agree. A lot of agendas against the man in here. Sad to see.

 

[stw2022]

Blame previous managers, blame the rest of the team, ask why players that often weren't even playing why they didn't do any better, question why we're even taking about Rashford when there are other players who might also be poor, accuse fans of having an agenda against him

 

[AngliaRed]

Sums up my thoughts nicely. The amount of times I see players run 2-3 yards past him and he doesn't even put in the effort of pressing them is too high.

I think him becoming the star man after last year, coupled with the fact that his best mates are Lingard and Sancho, that should tell you already quiete a bit the work ethic he has. As they say: You are the sum average of the 5 closest people you spend your time with.

Fairly certain that SAF wouldn't tolerate his attitude. Everyone was expected to run their socks off in his teams, well everyone except Cantona and Ronaldo.

I agree but even Ronaldo ran his socks off like if he was holding onto a lead and we needed an outlet. He would sprint with the ball and take the team
up the field and take some of the pressure off the team.

I aint for 1 minute attempting to compare the two as Ronaldo is the GOAT however the comparisons we are talking about should be debated.

 

[Borys]

I can only hope @Cassidy is as eager to defend the rest of our players.

In terms of tracking back, there’s two points to make:
Rashfords average position is usually further forward than anyone else, to no surprise that’s also the case against Brighton. It’s not much of a surprise that after the crucial goals he scored last season, we’re trying to consistently find him in the positions where he’s most likely to create/score. As a result, he won’t track back as much as say Antony, which is only natural given the role he has in the team and what is no doubt a part of Ten Hags strategy.

However, what you do expect is that his pressing is on point when the opposition has the ball close to him, close down passing lanes and don’t allow them time on the ball. I’d say he usually fails miserably here.

Yes, some of the stuff thrown at him is over the top, but i honestly can’t grasp how someone can look at that match, even watch it in replay, and come to the conclusion he’s done well. We consistently tried to get the ball to him in positions where he could cause Brighton trouble and i’d say we were good at it for the vast majority of the first half. Rashford had 9 shots, that is one shot less than all of Brightons attempts and they scored 3 goals and could’ve easily had 4 considering their one on one with Onana. Now, if Rashford was the only attacking player up front and we were desperate for him to do something on his own, those numbers would make sense, but that’s not the case. So many situations where he’d have great options for passes, Reguilon on an overlap with space in behind, Højlund making runs in behind, players available outside the box, and the usual outcome is that he either tries to go past one too many players or he tries to shoot. You can accept a certain level of selfishness, especially if we’re several goals up, but consistently being selfish when it’s 0-0, when we’re down a goal, when we’re down two goals is simply unacceptable at this level. It’s a numbers game and you go for probability, consistently going for individual glory won’t get us anywhere.

Again, you can only look at Brightons goals and the awareness the players have. They look up to see where the teammates are positioned and play as a unit rather than individuals, risk reward. Reverse yesterday and give Brighton similar situations as we had in the first and second half, do you think they’d walk off the pitch with only one goal? I doubt it. Would we have scored 3? No way.

Even the decision making for the goal that was disallowed was shambolic. He had several passing options, there’s no need to continue attempting to go past players and narrowing the angle more and more. Even if the pass doesn’t make it to the intended player, just hitting a ball into the most dangerous area in front of goal increases the likelyhood of someone getting a touch and the ball ending up in the back of the net.

Needs to improve his decision making


Ronaldo had several stages at Madrid, up until the point where he was «only» banging in a shitload of goals with Benzema playing second fiddle. In his initial years there he was a completely different player in a very different role, being both a creative part of the team and goalscorer. Either way, for the majority of the time he was miles above 99,9% of the rest of the players in the world. Ronaldo’s role was earned by pretty much completely dominating the league and it was also a case of longevity at the highest level when he wasn’t able to play the same way as he used to. It’s not like his later years at Juventus and Manchester United, where you sacrifice everything else to consistently try to get the ball to him in front of goal.

I thought it goes without saying that Ronaldo at Madrid was a magnificent player. I am pointing out that Ronaldo transformed into that version of himself because that gave him the most goals, but that was only possible because the team adjusted to him. I am not sure if this is what we should aim for with Rashford.

His game is worrying me really. And what worries me more is we can't do anything about it really. It's not like we're going to drop him.

 

[redshaw]

I'm not sure it's bad technical coaching that's to blame for the player he is now as much as man management. He used to press and play like this wasn't a chore. This seemed to change in the period he became the Mancunian Princess Diana.

Well it's both, he used to try and wasn't very good but still useful in his efforts. Under a coach like Pep he'd be trying and better at it.

We had many players not working yesterday and we accommodated him last season to good effect so I'm not blaming Rashford to anyone reading.

Have no idea, what did pep say?

That he can't keep the ball, nothing more than that.

 

[Drizzle]

This mantle he has of 'most dangerous' player for us is a complete myth.

We'd be exponentially more dangerous without him sucking up the vast majority of our attacks with his selfishness

Well his 3 month hot streak last season got us 3rd in the league and a trophy. He got 30 goals. 30 goals!

I get the criticism, I really do, but the fact is he's been the only goal threat from our front 3 for a long time. It sticks in my craw when I see people throwing hate at him, when he's taking on our attacking responsibility single handed.

Yes it's probably gone to his head and he's overdoing things then getting tired and sulking. I don't like to see it and Ten Hag needs a word with him. But the revisionism that we'd be a better side without him is laughable. Who replaces him? Garnacho? He's nowhere near the player and he's barely ready to start games, never mind take on that goalscoring responsibility.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Blame previous managers, blame the rest of the team, ask why players that often weren't even playing why they didn't do any better, question why we're even taking about Rashford when there are other players who might also be poor, accuse fans of having an agenda against him

This. Its always someone else to blame. Next they will be blaming the tea lady for not doing her job properly.

Criticize the club's highest earner for lack of footballing IQ, effort off the ball and greediness and you get told that you have some sort of agenda against him. Some of our fans deserve mediocrity.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

The video of us "pressing" yesterday was damning for Rashford. Shades of the famous Martial vs Sheffield United sequence.

 

[Andy_Cole]

As the Brighton fans were singing, he’s a shit Danny Welbeck

 

[Pogue Mahone]

The video of us "pressing" yesterday was damning for Rashford. Shades of the famous Martial vs Sheffield United sequence.

MOTD? I haven’t been able to bring myself to watching it yet. How bad is it?

 

[Drizzle]

As the Brighton fans were singing, he’s a shit Danny Welbeck

Do me a favour. He scored more goals last season than Welbeck has scored for the last 5 years in total, possibly more.

People are losing their minds over Rashford. He's not the problem.

 

[11101]

Well his 3 month hot streak last season got us 3rd in the league and a trophy. He got 30 goals. 30 goals!

I get the criticism, I really do, but the fact is he's been the only goal threat from our front 3 for a long time. It sticks in my craw when I see people throwing hate at him, when he's taking on our attacking responsibility single handed.

Yes it's probably gone to his head and he's overdoing things then getting tired and sulking. I don't like to see it and Ten Hag needs a word with him. But the revisionism that we'd be a better side without him is laughable. Who replaces him? Garnacho? He's nowhere near the player and he's barely ready to start games, never mind take on that goalscoring responsibility.

He'll always be one of our main goal threats as long as he's on the pitch because he won't pass, he won't make runs to open space for others, and he wont work so others pick up the slack. Once we finally move on from him we will see the hindrance he has been on our team.

This is our Spice boys era where we have popular players who play for themselves and their egos, and we win nothing.

 

[led_scholes]

We should have sold him and Shaw in the summer after their "one good season per 2 years" mentality. Now we have to wait till 2025 for them to have high value again.

 

[Ronaldo's Love Child]

He reminds me of Ronaldo at Madrid. As brilliant as he was, it required the whole team to be adjusted to him. When Madrid was attacking, Ronaldo used to do some stepovers and if the opportunity to run with the ball didn't arise, he would just pass it to defenders and go back to starting position. You very rarely saw him do anything in the buildup (even 1-2s), and you never saw him do anything off the ball.
Madrid got very lucky with Benzema as he needed to adjust his game to accommodate for Ronaldo, and he did it amazingly well.

If he reminds you of Ronaldo at Madrid you are being VERY generous.

Ronaldo was a world class goalscorer. He could be forgiven sometimes for making the wrong decision, not passing to a teammate etc.

We also used to have Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Another world class goalscorer.Perhaps not a great team player but he did what we paid him to do which was to put the ball in the back of the net.

Rashford behaves as if he is like the two guys in my example above but he very clearly isn't.

 

[Adisa]

He’s a selfish prick and I dislike him, I admit.
Plays like he cares about more about personal stats, glory and plaudits than the team’s results. Some of his actions in attacking situations are inexcusable.
This is a player I supported vehemently for his charitable work and advocacy but the way he plays and his selfishness is tough to swallow.

 

[stw2022]

We should have sold him and Shaw in the summer after their "one good season per 2 years" mentality. Now we have to wait till 2025 for them to have high value again.

Shaw is a fantastic player

 

[Drizzle]

He'll always be one of our main goal threats as long as he's on the pitch because he won't pass, he won't make runs to open space for others, and he wont work so others pick up the slack. Once we finally move on from him we will see the hindrance he has been on our team.

This is our Spice boys era where we have popular players who play for themselves and their egos, and we win nothing.

This logic is just bizarre. He created a goal for Hojlund yesterday, unfortunately chalked off. He got 8 or 9 assists last season as well as being by far our top goalscorer. He's literally the only threat. Remove him and we are in big big trouble.

Better to concentrate on spreading the threat. Hojlund will help with that but he's only had one game.

Rashford was not the problem yesterday. He really wasn't.

 

[rk4utd]

The contrast between our ‘pressing’ and the rest of the league is damning. With Antony now gone it’s going to get worse. Rashford has always played in purple patches and then long periods of frustration follow. But he now clearly doesn’t like hard work - it’s hard wired and it hasn’t been challenged enough by his coaches imo. He also knows now that he is undroppable. His body language is lamentable - sulking, arms outstretched and then numerous limping occasions when things don’t go his way. Almost childlike and akin to the kids you see on the park on a Sunday morning. Worrying times yet again….

 

[jesperjaap]

Yeah agree. A lot of agendas against the man in here. Sad to see.

No ageda personally. My main problem with Rashford is actually the fans. Always thought he s a good player, but bar those 4months last season he has very rarely been close to the star man a lot of fans seem to think he is. Talented but there are a lot of players in our league as good if not better than Rashford....like last season a work colleague who is a fan said he wouldnt swap him for any player in the world when he had that godo spell......like really?

 

[Drizzle]

I'm guessing the Rashford haters are begging for a Garnacho - Hojlund - Pellistri front 3? Am I right lads?

Grand total of 3 league goals between them. Good luck with that. They'll run around though to be fair.

 

[Cassidy]

No ageda personally. My main problem with Rashford is actually the fans. Always thought he s a good player, but bar those 4months last season he has very rarely been close to the star man a lot of fans seem to think he is. Talented but there are a lot of players in our league as good if not better than Rashford....like last season a work colleague who is a fan said he wouldnt swap him for any player in the world when he had that godo spell......like really?

So because of that you come in here and criticise him. Because some fans say some stupid things?

Out of curiosity which LW in the league would you swap him for?

 

[BarstoolProphet]

MOTD? I haven’t been able to bring myself to watching it yet. How bad is it?

Saw it online. Noticed it's now posted in the manager thread also a couple of pages back. Obviously not as bad as Martial, but him casually jogging/walking right next to their ball carrier 3-4 times while some of his teammates are pressing doesn't look good for either him nor the manager who allows it. We are giving an inconsistant but talented player the Ronaldo heroball treatment because we are unable to build any sort of team cohesion. The video also shows how out of sync and half-hearted our press is.

 

[hydro]

Rashford simply doesn’t have a football brain to go with his physical attributes.

I never feel that excited when he’s running at defenders, it’s more hopeful he will get lucky running head first into two defenders and get a lucky shin bounce because that’s the only time he appears successful.

You need the threat having that ability to go past players and creative passes to be a world class winger.

Whenever we play Arsenal and Saka has the ball in the final third you have an “Oh shit” feeling because he can do both.

His work rate and defending speaks for itself, don’t even get me started on how 6foot plus professional footballer doesn’t know how to head a football. The amount of times jumps under a football is infuriating.

For the record, he’s not the problem, but he’s part of it. He just reminds me of the fast kid at school who’s never kicked a football before being recruited into the team.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Saw it online. Noticed it's now posted in the manager thread also a couple of pages back. Obviously not as bad as Martial, but him casually jogging/walking right next to their ball carrier 3-4 times while some of his teammates are pressing doesn't look good for either him nor the manager who allows it. We are giving an inconsistant but talented player the Ronaldo heroball treatment because we are unable to build any sort of team cohesion. The video also shows how out of sync and half-hearted our press is.

Oh man that’s depressing. Was so refreshing seeing Hojlund sprinting to close opposition players down but we do seem to have been cursed with unfathomably lazy attacking players until now (with two exceptions - Bruno and Antony)

 

[Cassidy]

Shaw is a fantastic player

Like Rashford a good player. Not fantastic though

 

[Telsim]

I'd bin him for a massive amount and buy someone else. Would like Kvaratskhelia, but he is just too expensive. Mitoma might be more obtainable. Whether they would want to come here is another matter, of course.

 

[Amar__]

Rashford was one of the best pressers in the team in his first year or so, he was excellent at pressing, but then Ole made him godlike figure on the pitch, and Tan Hag continued to give him freedom to not press at all and pretend he is Messi on the pitch. So yeah, it's obviously a managers' fault he's become so lazy, because naturally he wasn't like that.

Same as they both allowed Mctominay to jog casually back any time the opposition counter attack us, to allow him to start so many times as a midfielder for Manchester United and not track back is simply amateur coaching.

 

[Drizzle]

I'd bin him for a massive amount and buy someone else. Would like Kvaratskhelia, but he is just too expensive. Mitoma might be more obtainable. Whether they would want to come here is another matter, of course.

I do think Rashford will go next summer. Good LWs are quite plentiful and we should get at least £120m for him. Leao, Kvara, Mitoma all good shouts.

Personally I hope he stays, that we sort out the more pressing issues in our attack (striker and RW) and win things with this lad.

 

[Oldyella]

This logic is just bizarre. He created a goal for Hojlund yesterday, unfortunately chalked off. He got 8 or 9 assists last season as well as being by far our top goalscorer. He's literally the only threat. Remove him and we are in big big trouble.

Better to concentrate on spreading the threat. Hojlund will help with that but he's only had one game.

Rashford was not the problem yesterday. He really wasn't.

Only reason he created that goal was he ran out of space for a shot himself. And it wasn't unfortunate it wasn't a goal, it was bad play as he delayed the pass for the same reason.

We can't remove him atm, but if I was ETH I would be keeping eye open for a left sided forward who can work hard and operate as a unit rather than for solo glory.

 

[JeffFromHK]

Rashford was one of the best pressers in the team in his first year or so, he was excellent at pressing, but then Ole made him godlike figure on the pitch, and Tan Hag continued to give him freedom to not press at all and pretend he is Messi on the pitch. So yeah, it's obviously a managers' fault he's become so lazy, because naturally he wasn't like that.

Same as they both allowed Mctominay to jog casually back any time the opposition counter attack us, to allow him to start so many times as a midfielder for Manchester United and not track back is simply amateur coaching.

Have always felt we United fans have given too much leeway to our academy graduates since the class of 92 romanticism.

 

[ZainCRse7en]

Out of curiosity which LW in the league would you swap him for?

Martinelli, Diaz, Mitoma..just to name a few. Yes they dont score as much as Rashford, but they are proper team players who work their socks off and make the team perform functionally better.

 

[led_scholes]

Shaw is a fantastic player

Shaw is a very talented footballer. That doesn't change the fact that he has been since 2014 here and he has been good 3 seasons.