Rashford's lack of willingness to dribble is causing us problems and Shaw's absence is exposing it

[Hugh Jass]

Jesus he is better than Danny Welbeck. Christ. But the last four or five games have been poor.

What he should do now is put his head down, have a rest and concentrate on his football. He is falling into the Lingard trap of concentrating on his off the pitch exploits.

 

[Carl]

Here's an unpopular opinion - Rashford is a skilled Danny Welbeck.

Interesting you chose Welbeck.

 

[Sandikan]

That's why I am baffled as why we are overplaying him. His performances doesn't deserve it and if he isn't fit then what's the point? Rashford and Ole both share the blame on this one. Rashford injury gives him some leeway but come on his performance has been like Sunday league player. And if he isn't 100% then why persist with him. We played some of our best football before Covid lockdown without him. Ole needs to answer to that

There shouldn't be much surprise - we barely have anyone to fill in for those front 3.

Ighalo can stand in in the easier games, but is no sub for the front 3.

 

[Carl]

He's been fairly awful since the restart. Hopefully its nothing too serious off the back of that injury he had.

We've seen spells like this from Rashford before though. He'll be fine.

 

[pratyush_utd]

There shouldn't be much surprise - we barely have anyone to fill in for those front 3.

Ighalo can stand in in the easier games, but is no sub for the front 3.

But Rashford was equally trash. If he was putting decent performance then it would make sense. You really think Andreas or Lingard would have performed worse?

 

[Sandikan]

But Rashford was equally trash. If he was putting decent performance then it would make sense. You really think Andreas or Lingard would have performed worse?

Those two are utter mediocrities at this level. Rashford is still playing above their level even when finding his way back from snapping his back.

 

[pratyush_utd]

Those two are utter mediocrities at this level. Rashford is still playing above their level even when finding his way back from snapping his back.

Then we have to agree to disagree. Rashford was absolutely woeful today and it wouldn't have mattered if we played with 10 man without him. But I blame Ole rather than Rashford as the player doesn't seem ready ( as you would expect from someone who returned from back injury) and he had been played to death.

 

[Pavl3n]

Interesting you chose Welbeck.

Who else?
Local lad, youth product, a lot of hype, better than Welbeck yet a very inconsistent and lackluster player.
May be I should've gone for Bebe, Macheda or Januzaj.

 

[Baneofthegame]

Its nasty isnt it.

I honestly think we have the worst supporters in the premier league.

The fans will belittle any player any chance they get even after an Injury because they value success over anything else.

Liverpool's supporters are better at supporting their players than our ones. fecking our players is on the form of his life, gets a spinal back fracture injury and then gets called welbeck.

feck these supporters.

The state of some of these posts.

 

[WR10]

Once again, his lack of willingness to dribble comes from his lack of actual ability. He sees Bruno, Martial and Pogba put on a talented show everyday in training and he’s still stuck thinking he’s good because he can hit a knuckle ball

 

[parkthebuslads]

He's looked miserable since coming back.

 

[Beans]

Better to try a risky pass than recycle every time. I do think we need to use him in a very particular way to get the best out of him, which Ole clearly knows how to do. Which is having him come inside when we have the ball as a second striker.

 

[Jibbs]

Never, ever criticise Rashford on this forum and expect an easy ride

He’s the most talented player we’ve ever produced and only Jose/injuries/Ole/ confidence/poor coaches/being played out of position/tiredness (delete as appropriate) prevent him for hitting peak Messi levels week in week out

And when the ball rolls off his shin and out of play for the 8th time that game or he misplaces his 20th consecutive pass that’s because nobody is on his wavelength

This. It is so fecking laughable really. Rashford, due to his injury or whatever is going through a very lean patch. He was a limited player even before whose main strength was his speed, dribbling was never his strength. Also he was improving his finishing ability mid season but it has gone down since his injury. Really think he needs a long break to freshen up and do some work with coaches to improve his game.

 

[manuchamp88]

This. It is so fecking laughable really. Rashford, due to his injury or whatever is going through a very lean patch. He was a limited player even before whose main strength was his speed, dribbling was never his strength. Also he was improving his finishing ability mid season but it has gone down since his injury. Really think he needs a long break to freshen up and do some work with coaches to improve his game.

The way you've phrased it sounds a bit mean, but essentially I think you're right. His finishing was hit and miss (literally), dribbling was the same, but his ability to run at players with pace really gave him an edge. I also think that he appeared to be improving not just his finishing, but all three before the restart. He just hasn't looked the same since he came back.

I suppose the dilemma for Ole was, does he play a Rashford at 50% or Mata or James? Obviously he preferred former. I just wonder if subbing him way earlier for James would've made a difference, whose pace would've undone a tiring Sevilla defense? We'll never know.

 

[Infordin]

People often think players with bags of pace should be able to beat a man but I think reality is more complex than that. I see it as pace on the ball vs pace off the ball & it's something I don't find people paying enough attention to. Rashford is lightning quick when the ball is played into space for him to run onto or when he has open space to knock the ball into himself and chase after but he moves at a snails pace when he has to keep the ball close to his feet.

In my opinion, Rashford simply lacks the close control and talent to run quickly while keeping the ball close to him. There are some players who have this ability in abundance (Messi, Neymar, Ronaldinho, R9, Maradona). Rashford isn’t one of them. He needs space to dribble, like Bale. If you take away the space, you take him out of the game.

Also, acceleration is a very important factor that is often overlooked. If you compare a 22 year old Rashford with a 22 year old Messi, Rashford probably has better top speed, but Messi is much quicker over the first 10-20 yards. That makes him a far more dangerous dribbler.

 

[ti vu]

He may not be tempted to dribble, due to some whatever issues, fine. However, why can't he pass / cross the ball first time, instead of stand still trying to sell trick nobody buys. Pass and move (off the ball) would be Okay, instead slowing us down.

 

[elmo]

I think his back is still affecting him and he's unable to dribble past his opponent and has to rely on quick 1-2 passes with Shaw and Pogba to get past defenders for him to run at goal.

Pogba dropping further back and Shaw's absense means Rashford's inability to dribble properly right now is getting exposed.

We really should be resting him instead of risking him. A back injury is no joke and he needs more time to rest even if he thinks he's fully recovered.

Took me nearly a year to properly recover from back surgery and Rashford basically came back in like 5 months?

 

[Fluctuation0161]

Jesus he is better than Danny Welbeck. Christ. But the last four or five games have been poor.

What he should do now is put his head down, have a rest and concentrate on his football. He is falling into the Lingard trap of concentrating on his off the pitch exploits.

I agree on the rest being needed. But this idea that if a player does anything off the pitch he is losing focus is a misnomer.

 

[Dr. McBeasty]

Think he’ll come good eventually, but clearly isn’t all the way back following his injury. Not sure if it’s still physical or just mental at this point, but once he gets shaw back on the overlap and some confidence, don’t see why he won’t get back to the player he was earlier this season.

 

[Scholsey2004]

He's struggled with his form since he came back. Whether that's because of pain from the recurring back injury or just losing some fitness or sharpness from being out I couldn't say. He certainly doesn't typically have a problem with his dribbling though, that's not a fair criticism at all.

 

[Judas]

He needs a rest out of the team, unfortunately the option to replace him are laughable. Playing him back into form doesn't appear to be working, but at least there's a break now. Everything he tries doesn't seem to be coming off, and its a bit like how he started the season. People turning on him already is laughable, but that's a bit typical of this place.

I hope its not related to his back injury because that would be heartbreaking, he doesn't look fit though.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Hi all, my first thread posted so hopefully it's not a flop but I've been thinking about this for a while now & would love to see some other opinions.

Rashford, to me, shows a total lack of willingness to dribble with the ball. People often think players with bags of pace should be able to beat a man but I think reality is more complex than that. I see it as pace on the ball vs pace off the ball & it's something I don't find people paying enough attention to. Rashford is lightning quick when the ball is played into space for him to run onto or when he has open space to knock the ball into himself and chase after but he moves at a snails pace when he has to keep the ball close to his feet. This is very different to Martial who, whilst probably not being as fast as Rashford at top speed, doesn't lose any of his pace when he has to keep close control of the ball and it allows him to just glide past defenders and wreak havoc.

Rashford is often seen as a big game player but I think the reality is that big games are games against teams like Man City or Liverpool who will attack you and leave gaps, which Rashford will exploit, but he would do just as well vs a small team that attacks and equally he performs poorly vs big teams that play a low block. An example I want to give for my opinion on this is two of our recent games against Spurs. We played Spurs early into Ole's reign when they were still managed by Poch and they used a high line with attacking fullbacks & Rashford was excellent against them with all of the space to work with & even bagged the winning goal. Flash forward to our recent game against the same team, now managed by Mourinho, playing a low block with deep fullbacks & suddenly Rashford was dreadful, never providing a threat or attempting to beat his man & just disappeared from the game.

Next season could further highlight this issue if we bring in Sancho, a player that wouldn't beat Rashford in a race in a month of Sundays, but I can guarantee you he'll beat his fullback 10 times over for every time Rashford does it. Now, I mentioned at the start of this post that I've thought this for a while but I've decided to post about it now because I feel like this issue is being exposed by Shaw's absence. When Rashford faces up with his fullback he gets offered an overlap by Shaw nearly every time & plays the pass to Shaw to mitigate the need to take on the defender himself or the defender tracks Shaw and allows Rashford the space he needs to move into. Brandon Williams doesn't tend to offer the overlap, likely on account of his dominant right foot making it more difficult for him to put the ball into danger areas once he has overlapped, and this is now causing us to see time & again Rashford cutting back or dropping deep & trying to act as a playmaker instead of a winger.

For me it's imperative that Rashford works on his close control next season but what do you guys think? Is it a problem and if so how would you resolve it with our current squad? Or am I just talking nonsense?

Thank you for your time if you do read this long post

Yeah good post. However that’s because Rashford isn’t a winger but actually forward. When he plays on the left, he operates as inside forward more than winger which is why he doesn’t do what winger does and need overlapping full back. Same to Greenwood on the right.

I think this is why we are looking for players who can beat the man with no problem to the box and deliver the ball. This is something that winger can do like Sancho or someone who has great close control & dribbling ability like Grealish.

 

[Morpheus 7]

Coming back from a serious back injury and hasn't be right since the restart. He needs a real rest and we need better options from the bench. We missed Shaw but he's the most overated player at the club. Shaw was good before good injury but not amazing, people going overboard because he overlaps. Maybe Rashford did miss him but the issue is the squad. When a player is way off you replace him with a player on the bench. That's the real issue, that rubbish bench. Players will be injured, struggle with form ect. It's having options when people need to be taken out of the team. Rashford was incredible before his injury. He really stepped up a gear this season. Shame he's not been the same since injury. Needs real recovery, going to be a long season and must be handled better this season.

 

[pascell]

He's looked miserable since coming back.

I think the same, maybe that injury is still having a lasting effect on him or causing more discomfort. I mean he has played a lot of football in a short space of time.

 

[devilish]

Inside forwards rely heavily on FBs to give them the solidity at the back needed for them to go forward and cause damage. Unfortunately we have just 1 natural LB in this team and he's a crock. It was an issue when Martial was a winger and its an issue with Rashy.

 

[Eli Zee]

I think rashfords gotten too cocky and thinks he's like the next Ronaldo and gets frustrated when things don't work for him with dribbles / passes / shots, and then he gets more and more frustrated so they continue to not work.

 

[Nou_Camp99]

Rashford had a career threatening injury this season. People seem to forget this.

 

[Strelok]

I'm a big fan but it's true that he's been so poor lately that I even thought it'd better for him to be on the bench for a while.

Really wish that he would come back to his level pre injury. He was pretty phenomenal back then, especially against Spurs. Imo the Rashford in that match was the closet thing to CR7 we've had here after he left. Btw I'm not saying he'd become the new CR7, no way they're miles apart but if he can do what he did in that match on a relatively regular basis then hell of a player we'd have here.

The season ended anyway so let's wait and see how he'd do in the new season I think.

 

[Irrational.]

I don't think Rashford is a winger, he never was. He wants to play centrally and you can see that from how reluctant he is to beat a man out wide.

If Ole had any tactical sense about him he'd be constantly asking Rashford and Martial to switch, as they both offer different things, centrally and out wide on the left.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

He just needs a rest. He will be fine.

 

[Jacob]

Rashford for ST and Martial LW. With Martial's dribbling, it's a waste down the middle.

Rashford needs to improve his runs, combined with his pace he should be getting lots of one-on-ones with the GK with Bruno as the provider.

 

[-Supreme-]

Inside forwards rely heavily on FBs to give them the solidity at the back needed for them to go forward and cause damage. Unfortunately we have just 1 natural LB in this team and he's a crock. It was an issue when Martial was a winger and its an issue with Rashy.

Rashfords defensive duties down the left side has been non existent to say the least...

 

[WR10]

Glad to have Shaw back. He somehow brought industrialism back on the left side.
Rashford remains a ghost of himself. Like he’s stuck at the same development stage he was in 3 years ago. The kid plays like he’s a lot better than he actually is. What on earth is wrong with his foot? Why does he only ever use a knuckleball? Corner, pass, cross field, crosses... just belts it, no curve, cut or finesse ever

 

[Jaykespeare88]

Hasn't been great, reckon its got to do with his injury, doesn't seem to wanna exert himself to much which is understandable and probably under instruction to do so until fully fit, ill give him another couple of months before I properly lose patience with him.