Why have we started playing Rashford on the right?

[Bebestation]

You realise Ronaldo has missed sitters in his career too and will continue to do so as has every single player to have ever played football?

It’s like claiming someone is overrated because you’ve seen evidence of them being offside

Theres nothing wrong with missing a sitter but Cavani is widely known as a sitter misser and can go through 90 mins without scoring because he misses clear cut chances.

I saw this at PSG in a farmers league so why you expect this to change in the PL I have no idea.

I'm happy that Cavani is playing for us and he is a quality player - but if he becomes our starting ST then we cant be playing wingers like Greenwood, Rashford and Martial who are goal scorers than creators.

 

[UncleBob]

Agree its a monumentally sht play but Id argue Rashford is an instinctual player. When he's in the groove he does all this instinctively. When you push him on the RW he loses this as he has to retrain his natural actions.

Ah, he loses his natural ability to have instincts.

Great.

What if he's just a bit fecking selfish ?

Like the situation below against Liverpool in the league.

1: Ball is played up to Rashford, he has Fred making a run down the sideline who is completely free and Martial is completely free in the middle. Two obvious options.
2: Rashford turns with the ball, his only option now is to pass the ball to Martial as Fred is now behind his back
3: Instead of passing it, he tries to go past Thiago(?) and loses the ball

If Rashford passes the ball up to Martial, it's likely to be Martial and Fred on a 2 vs 1 with Robertson the only defender in front of them.

 

[G-MUFC]

Rashford has looked world class on the left. Every other top club would continue to play him there week in week out. However we decide to shove him over to the other side. No other top club does this, only us.

 

[Highfather_24]

Not sure if he is selfish, or just doesnt have in game intelligence.

Neither of them is a good thing.

 

[El Zoido]

There was no reason for him playing on the right yesterday, with the lineup that started the game. My only thought is that Ole recognises that we’ve become extremely one-dimensional and predictable with the Rashford/Shaw linkup on the left, he wants to expand our options by having Marcus become better on the right side. It’s the only thing that makes any sense to me.

 

[GoldTrafford99]

His competition has been Dan James. Let’s not make out Rashford has been elite Ronaldo on the left .

Doesn’t look like Pellestri or Diallo can play left either.

So we basically need a LW now inside of a RW

Rashford has more goals and assists combined by age 23 than Cristiano Ronaldo had at the same age.

 

[Bebestation]

Why does Messi not play LW?

Why does Ronaldo not play RW anymore?

Why does Robben not play centrally or on the LW?

Because they have a clear position and an angle they like to work on. It helps their finishing, their decision making and heading ability too.

 

[stevoc]

He needs to play on the left as it's starting to affect his form. He plays so much better with Bruno and Shaw when on the left. For all Pogba and Martial provide from the left they could do similar on the right.

But it all goes to highlight that the right wing was and still is the biggest priority in this team that needs a reinforcement. Not signing one has probably cost us a good chance at winning the league.

 

[Bebestation]

Why does Messi not play LW?

Why does Ronaldo not play RW anymore?

Why does Robben not play centrally or on the LW?

Because they have a clear position and an angle they like to work on. It helps their finishing, their decision making, heading ability, passing abilities and more.

Rashford is playing on the right because we are playing with a more traditional number 9 who needs chances created with him.

When Martial plays our main goalscorers become our wider players. When Cavani plays our main goalscorers become the central player with the wider players having to be creative than cut in and shoot or how our players have the ability to dribble straight in to the box before making a one two pass or shoot. Cavani is the one who cant do that.

 

[Judas]

I'm struggling to understand the intentional watering down of our attack by playing him out of position. The RW experiment should be over now, it's a total monumental waste of his talents.

Bench Martial, put Rashford LW, and go back to Greenwood out there, or hell give Amad a go. Either of those options are better than Rashford out there.

 

[Offside]

1. We don’t have an actual RW
2. Anybody is better than Dan James there
3. We’re trying to play Fred, McT, Bruno and Pogba in the same team so Pogba goes on the left

Needs to stop.

 

[Sultan]

Rashford is definitely not comfortable on the right. I'd go with a flat 4-4-2 against lower placed teams. Play Greenwood and Cavani as centre-forwards.

De Gea
Van Bissaka - Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw
Mct/Fred/Matic
Bruno/Pogba
Diallo/James - Greenwood - Cavani - Rashford/Martial

 

[croadyman]

1. We don’t have an actual RW
2. Anybody is better than Dan James there
3. We’re trying to play Fred, McT, Bruno and Pogba in the same team so Pogba goes on the left

Needs to stop.

Yeah Marcus clearly needs to go back on the LW and make mason first choice on the RW as he obviously feels that Amad is not ready to be given a chance there yet

 

[mav_9me]

Why does Messi not play LW?

Why does Ronaldo not play RW anymore?

Why does Robben not play centrally or on the LW?

Because they have a clear position and an angle they like to work on. It helps their finishing, their decision making and heading ability too.

I'm struggling to understand the intentional watering down of our attack by playing him out of position. The RW experiment should be over now, it's a total monumental waste of his talents.

Bench Martial, put Rashford LW, and go back to Greenwood out there, or hell give Amad a go. Either of those options are better than Rashford out there.

1. We don’t have an actual RW
2. Anybody is better than Dan James there
3. We’re trying to play Fred, McT, Bruno and Pogba in the same team so Pogba goes on the left

Needs to stop.

I realize we are not coaches and just armchair fans but this is so painfully obvious...

RW has been a deadzone for years. Maybe Rashford playing there is 10% better than others but now LW is a dead zone too. Way to go.

 

[mav_9me]

And yeah if we continue with this sooner or later Rashford is going to lose his confidence.

 

[Buster15]

Rashford has looked world class on the left. Every other top club would continue to play him there week in week out. However we decide to shove him over to the other side. No other top club does this, only us.

Depends on the reason.

 

[acnumber9]

Anyone who can’t see that these things are conspiring to make him look like one of those production line of promising young players who turn out to be bang average once they reach their early 20s , needs to go have a word with themselves.

That bang average player is currently out scoring and creating more goals than Mane and just one goal behind Son. The two players most would consider the best in the league in his position. Comfortably ahead of Sterling too. He’s playing poorly but this is hyperbolic shite.

 

[Giggsy13]

Playing Rashford out of position seems to have contributed to the issues he’s having. I don’t think any one of us would’ve predicted that martial and Rashford’s form would fall off a cliff after what they were doing during the restart. The only solution I think is to either play VDB or Pogba on the right until Ed and our owners fecking pony up for another right sided attacker.

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

get the right is a problem (although I think Greenwood is fine there if we don't sub him off every time he goes 60 minutes without scoring a hatrick)

As a dozen people have told you already, Greenwood doesn't get subbed for going 60 minutes without a hattrick. He gets subbed off because he's scored once in 800 minutes.

It completely undermines your point when you make up hyperbolic BS like this and go on to say the manager must not be watching the team.

That bang average player is currently out scoring and creating more goals than Mane and just one goal behind Son. The two players most would consider the best in the league in his position. Comfortably ahead of Sterling too. He’s playing poorly but this is hyperbolic shite.

Weekly reminder that the chap you're quoting is on record as saying no top seven team in any top league in Europe would be in a rush to sign Rashford if he was on the market. Hyperbolic shite is what he does.

 

[Teja]

When we started this experiment I thought even if Rashford is a bit worse on the right it'll be worth it to squeeze Martial + Cavani into the team.

IMO the experiment has failed and it's time go back to Rashford on the left w/ one of Greenwood / Mata / VdB coming in from the right. I think VdB nominally starting on the right and drifting infield as Mata does might be worth a shot.

 

[passing-wind]

Why does Messi not play LW?

Why does Ronaldo not play RW anymore?

Why does Robben not play centrally or on the LW?

Because they have a clear position and an angle they like to work on. It helps their finishing, their decision making and heading ability too.

This is very important. I can't see why fans don't understand how the dynamic of a pitch opens up depending on what foot you are determining the angle at which the game is played within. It's no different to boxing really it's the more scientific aspect of sport. I can't think of too many quality wide players who don't play inverted. Tactically it suits the modern game with opposition doubling the fullback positions.

Rashford on song is a quality player and one of the best attackers in the league. I'm shocked how much people have seemingly ventured against him. You take away some of his goals this season and Ole is back to sleeplessness nights and terrible interviews. Get a grip.

 

[Lash]

I imagine they're playing him there to try and add something to his game, because he's become so one dimensional recently, it's been easy for people to defend against. He's had two of the worst games I've ever seen him play recently and he's struggling with the basic stuff, he just needs to come through this tough couple of games and get his confidence back. Playing on the left or right doesn't really matter.

 

[Ajr]

Anyone think we should play Rashford - Pogba - Greenwood with Bruno as a false 9?

 

[Fitchett]

The solutions are simple. Cavani must be first choice centre forward. Rashford to be first choice left forward, with Martial as back up. Play Greenwood as right forward when pace is needed in space, or Mata to unpick a packed defence. Integrate Diallo slowly into the team with a few late cameos.

 

[city-puma]

Anyone think we should play Rashford - Pogba - Greenwood with Bruno as a false 9?

No. The whole thing starts with that we need to put pogba in and also play Bruno. We put pogba on left in more advanced position, then Rashford has to go to right.
All the experiments we did are not really successful. I think it the main reason our play has become less convincing in the last few weeks.
don’t get me wrong. I don’t blame pogba at all. The effort and contribution he did in our run to No 1 are massive. I just think we did that by compromising several positions, including Bruno.
Pogba just simply lack of certain critical things in our system. It’s not a good match. It looks more and more the situation we have to choose one between Bruno and pogba.
I am afraid that we won’t find any working system with both on pitch. It’s probably a simple arithmetic question that how much work rate we want to have in each game. Pogba can offer no more than 0.5 personal by his best effort in my opinion. Putting anyone in needs to take account of it.

edit: sorry, I misread your post. It’a actually a innovative idea! But, I will probably put Bruno on right with Greenwood or Martial in the middle, like,
Greenwood/martial
Rashford-pogba-Bruno
They can interchange positions on pitch.

 

[Plant0x84]

Not sure if he is selfish, or just doesnt have in game intelligence.

Neither of them is a good thing.

I don’t think either assumption is fair really.
Looks to me like he knows he’s out of form and is trying a bit too hard to force something and get going again. Rather that than him sulk and not be arsed.

Playing him out of position is only going to make life harder for him.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

He has performed and scored playing on the right. He didn’t perform against Sheffield United when playing on the left. We have also seen him not performing and making poor decision making in his final third on the left. Either left or right, don’t think it will make the big difference. Rashford decision making has always been inconsistent.

I thought Rashford’s general play against arsenal was very good, constantly give problems to arsenal defense with his positioning, movement, and skill but unfortunately his brain was the thing that makes him one of our worst player in that match because constantly making poor decision making in the final third. If he can improve his decision making in the final third, he will be world class, much more consistent, capable to score twice the amount of goals and assists means his talent can be more influential than Bruno in my opinion. That’s something he can grow with.

 

[noodlehair]

As a dozen people have told you already, Greenwood doesn't get subbed for going 60 minutes without a hattrick. He gets subbed off because he's scored once in 800 minutes.

It completely undermines your point when you make up hyperbolic BS like this and go on to say the manager must not be watching the team.

.
You're the first person to reply to that post and that's the first post where I've mentioned about Greenwood getting subbed off after 60 minutes if he doesn't score a hatrick (which I'm pretty sure anyone who isn't a complete idiot would realise was a bit of a tongue in cheek comment).

Then you claim in the very next sentence that "hyberbolic BS" undermines MY point. Haha.

Didn't Greenwood score just a week ago from a Rashford assist, and also directly assist a goal for Rashford in the same game? Pretty sure that would have been less than 800 minutes ago unless we've played 8 games since last weekend....not that you're being "hyperbolic" again or anything.

When was the last time Rashford scored playing from the right or Pogba/Martial scored while playing as left wingers? I bet you can't even remember. The only goals I can even think of are Rashford against WOlves and at home to PSG, and both of those were freak deflected shots...and the Wolves game I'm not even sure if he was on the right or had just made a run there.

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

(which I'm pretty sure anyone who isn't a complete idiot would realise was a bit of a tongue in cheek comment).

This doesn't quite come off when the post I was quoting is pretending that it's utterly inexplicable for the manager to not play Greenwood in this form, and the fact that he's doing it suggests he isn't watching his team play. Try again, please.

My point - and I've made it multiple times in this thread, as have plenty of others, as seen here:

This post seems to be ignoring the fact that Greenwood has been worse than Martial all season. Far worse. They've both been hopeless in front of goal but Martial's been contributing far more generally.

And Rashford is doing way better on the right than Greenwood or James. Really not seeing how it's weakening the team to play this way when the alternatives on the right are a young player out of form and a young player who's just a bit crap. Or Mata...

- was that Greenwood is having a crap season and has been the worst of all the attackers so far (which is saying a lot). And that explains why Solskjaer has been fiddling with the setup. I'm not the first person in this thread to say that the logic behind Rashford on the right was to get him, Martial and Cavani on the pitch together in a setup that's more effective than leaving one of Martial and Cavani out to put Greenwood, Mata or James on the right. Especially before the last three or four games, when it was working reasonably well.

You're the one pretending leaving Greenwood out of the team means the manager hasn't been watching his team play. So yes, hyperbolic nonsense.

The 800 minutes stat is obviously referring to the league - Greenwood had a great game against Liverpool in the cup, which got me excited to see if he'd kick on against Sheff United. And he was utterly rubbish again - yes, Martial was worse in that game and should have gone off instead, but he's still been marginally more useful overall. Greenwood will develop into a fantastic player but he's in a slump right now and it's blindingly obvious why he doesn't start every game.

When was the last time Rashford scored playing from the right or Pogba/Martial scored while playing as left wingers? I bet you can't even remember.

Literally already pointed this out earlier in the thread.

Rashford has looked much better on the right in this recent spell than he did the few times he was tried there earlier. Not seeing the problem with playing him there, especially with Greenwood off color - it gets the three best attacking options on the pitch.

Rashford created the winner today from the right. He played a key role in the buildup to Martial's goal against Villa from the right. And if I'm not mistaken, he scored the winner against Wolves after moving to the right following Martial's introduction. It's working.

It helps that he's become much better at beating players from a standing start this season, and he's started to hold the width when he's on that side. Which creates more space for Fernandes and the striker, while Greenwood seems to get in their way and not offer much himself at this point.

Yeah, he's had a bunch of crap games in a row now with a great performance on the left in between. That doesn't mean it was the nonsensical idea you've been making it out to be all along.

 

[BlahRules]

The board's inability to buy a right winger has pushed OGS to play Rashford as RW. If we don't play him as a RW who else will play that position? James is ineffective in that role and had many chances and played worse than Rashford. Before the right side of our attack was non-exitance but now there is some threat.

Our issue is that Greenwood has not picked up form since the start of the season and does not dominate the right side as well as Rashford and Martial is like Greenwood who does not show enough.

Our hope is Diallo takes his chances when given or otherwise we will be seeing Rashford more often which is not his fault nor OGS but the board.

 

[DCP]

It's ridiculous, almost as ridiculous as playing Pogba on the right wing.

Please him on the left, play Cavani as 9 and play Greenwood on the right.

Groom Greenwood to be a number 9 and buy a right winger.

Get some creativity in too!! Please!

 

[RedDevil@84]

It is almost as if the club has told Ole that they are not going to buy a RW and he has to convert Rashford/Greenwood into one

 

[Ish]

Why would the club decide not to buy a right winger if we’ve spent money on Diallo and van de Beek? Sure, maybe the club didn’t want to spend £100m on Sancho, but there’s other right wingers that I’m sure we could have gone after if the manager wanted them. Probably just trying to buy some time until we either go all in for Sancho again or Diallo has settled in. But yeah, I can’t see the club refusing to spend money on a RW if one was identified, within budget.

 

[stepic]

we should be benching Martial. start Rashford on the left, Cavani up top and let Greenwood figure things out on the right. problem solved.

 

[Infra-red]

Rashford has created the third-most chances of any United player this season (behind Fernandes and Shaw - Martial is 4th) - I guess Ole is trying to spread the attacking threat across the pitch a bit more instead of it all being focused down the left/through the centre.

With Wan Bissaka at RB and no decent RW in the squad, we're struggling to create anything down that side.

 

[Mcking]

Didn't notice the don't play him on the right gang when he played on the left against Sheffield United and was still shit.

 

[Borys]

Didn't notice the don't play him on the right gang when he played on the left against Sheffield United and was still shit.

It resets in people mind after each game.

Anyway, I hope we continue playing him on the right. He has the right attributes to play there and more space to operate. He just needs to calm down a bit and look around more often to see players in better positions.

 

[Red & White]

I agree with the guys on the podcast, put Rashford back on the left and try another option on the right. Can’t be any worse than what we currently have based on recent games. In an ideal world you’d have Martial and Rashford competing for the left wing and play the one in form whilst bringing the other one on when needed. They’d soon hit some form with that competition.

I know this isn’t really possible due to their high wages, which would be a lot for a non starter, however, that’s how you’d go from what we have to a championship winning side.

 

[stw2022]

He’s being asked to play on the right, not in goal. I’m not his biggest fan but doing the same job but from the other side of the pitch rarely proves to be catastrophic for players less talented than him.

I don’t understand why a supposed top player would be so flummoxed by that. How many lads every week start askew of their ideal position? Strikers dropping back into the middle, wingers told to sit, central midfielders told to go out on the left or right due to the challenge posed by a particular opponent.

There’s a real disconnect between insisting he isn’t a limited player whilst at the same time arguing his usefulness is limited by being asked to make a relatively minor adjustment to his game.

Top players adapt their game depending on where and how they’re asked to play and against whom. In a season over the course of each game top players are asked to perform in any number of different roles far more challenging than being a wide forward who prefers to play on the left being asked to play on the right, and very rarely does their form go to absolute shit because of it. Top players overcome these things. Average players need excuses, like the suggestion they’re perpetually carrying a knock, have other things on their mind, aren’t getting on with the new fabric softener or not being able to track back because he prefers the other side of the pitch

 

[Lee565]

I swear cavani use to play on the wings at times for psg to good effect, maybe that could be an option to try, cant be any worse than james or lingard.