Why have we started playing Rashford on the right?

noodlehair

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Am I missing something here?

He's been one of our best players playing from the left for a year and a half now. We don't have anyone better than him to play there. In fact we don't appear to have anyone else who can even play there and look comfortable.

We're essentially moving our best forward out of position, in order to play someone else out of position, in his position.

Just smacks a bit of trying to complete a jigsaw by taking a correctly placed piece back out and trying to shoe horn it into a gap somewhere else. Has Rashford ever actually played well from the right?
 

Wicked_Badger

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Am I missing something here?

He's been one of our best players playing from the left for a year and a half now. We don't have anyone better than him to play there. In fact we don't appear to have anyone else who can even play there and look comfortable.

We're essentially moving our best forward out of position, in order to play someone else out of position, in his position.

Just smacks a bit of trying to complete a jigsaw by taking a correctly placed piece back out and trying to shoe horn it into a gap somewhere else. Has Rashford ever actually played well from the right?
Yeah, neither he or Martial look comfortable in the positions they played tonight. Feels a bit like Ole is trying to play Martial back into form and maybe thinks by not having him up top relieves the pressure a bit?

Doesn’t help that out right is so lacking in attacking quality. There’s not exactly loads of options there.

But... top of the league, won a scrappy game. Can’t care about it too much right now!
 

Red00012

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Am I missing something here?

He's been one of our best players playing from the left for a year and a half now. We don't have anyone better than him to play there. In fact we don't appear to have anyone else who can even play there and look comfortable.

We're essentially moving our best forward out of position, in order to play someone else out of position, in his position.

Just smacks a bit of trying to complete a jigsaw by taking a correctly placed piece back out and trying to shoe horn it into a gap somewhere else. Has Rashford ever actually played well from the right?
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
 
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TMDaines

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Am I missing something here?

He's been one of our best players playing from the left for a year and a half now. We don't have anyone better than him to play there. In fact we don't appear to have anyone else who can even play there and look comfortable.

We're essentially moving our best forward out of position, in order to play someone else out of position, in his position.

Just smacks a bit of trying to complete a jigsaw by taking a correctly placed piece back out and trying to shoe horn it into a gap somewhere else. Has Rashford ever actually played well from the right?
Because Martial is completely useless there and Rashford’s at least got the good grace and character to at least try his best to carve out a role
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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I actually think he has played okay on the right in recent games and looks to have developed from when he played there previously. Not convinced tonight’s display was down to his position, he’s just been on poor form for awhile now.
 

charlenefan

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His competition has been Dan James. Let’s not make out Rashford has been elite Ronaldo on the left .
Says a lot about you that that was your reply to what was posted
 

macheda14

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Yeah, neither he or Martial look comfortable in the positions they played tonight. Feels a bit like Ole is trying to play Martial back into form and maybe thinks by not having him up top relieves the pressure a bit?

Doesn’t help that out right is so lacking in attacking quality. There’s not exactly loads of options there.

But... top of the league, won a scrappy game. Can’t care about it too much right now!
More he’s playing Martial on the left because Cavani has shown enough to start up top more often.
 

Chairman Steve

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To accompany Martial to play on the left because he hasn’t been doing too great in the middle this season (taken by the experienced Cavani) and historically has been worse on the right, and the only forward we’ve had who looks comfortable being the right forward has been Greenwood, who has got second season syndrome bad judging by what’s happened so far.
 

el3mel

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I feel we are trying so hard to push him, Cavani and Martial as our front 3 but I really don't like the idea of having our 2 wingers being strikers.
 

charlenefan

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Am I missing something here?

He's been one of our best players playing from the left for a year and a half now. We don't have anyone better than him to play there. In fact we don't appear to have anyone else who can even play there and look comfortable.

We're essentially moving our best forward out of position, in order to play someone else out of position, in his position.

Just smacks a bit of trying to complete a jigsaw by taking a correctly placed piece back out and trying to shoe horn it into a gap somewhere else. Has Rashford ever actually played well from the right?
He's the victim of being the most adaptable I guess

I personally hate it, if Ole wants to play Cavani through the middle then it should be between Martial or Rashford on the left with the other on the bench. Likewise if when Cavani has been missing but we've played Pogba on the left, in that scenario again that should mean Rashford on the bench

Wouldn't even be having this discussion if Sancho had been signed in the summer
 

RedDevil@84

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Am I missing something here?

He's been one of our best players playing from the left for a year and a half now. We don't have anyone better than him to play there. In fact we don't appear to have anyone else who can even play there and look comfortable.

We're essentially moving our best forward out of position, in order to play someone else out of position, in his position.

Just smacks a bit of trying to complete a jigsaw by taking a correctly placed piece back out and trying to shoe horn it into a gap somewhere else. Has Rashford ever actually played well from the right?
Yes, shoe-horning is the correct word.
We are just trying to get our attackers all in, but the trouble is they have so much of a preferred position that their form falls of a cliff if not played in that position. Which makes it a lot difficult.
 

Withnail

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To accompany Martial to play on the left because he hasn’t been doing too great in the middle this season (taken by the experienced Cavani) and historically has been worse on the right, and the only forward we’ve had who looks comfortable being the right forward has been Greenwood, who has got second season syndrome bad judging by what’s happened so far.
Pretty much exactly this.

He may grow into the role as well. He has put in the odd fantastic cross from the right.
 

Dante

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Rashford had 69 touches of the ball but 0 shot attempts.

That tell you everything you fecking need to know about how uncomfortable he is on the right.
 

justsomebloke

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I think the answer to that is simple - it's because left wing is where we must play Martial if Cavani is the striker, or Pogba if he isn't in the central midfield pivot. Also, because if Greenwood isn't deemed in good enough form to start, there's really no one else who can play on the right that doesn't represent a sharp drop in quality. So, it's how things come together if the priority is to start the players he wants to start, and a reflection of the structure of the squad, specifically our weakness on the right.

I think Rashford has occasionally looked effective on the right, but today (or against City) he didn't. Also Pogba has been really good on the left more than once, to such an extent that I'd started thinking that was really the place to use him, though today he was superb as part of the central pivot. I'm still fairly firmly of the opinion that Martial should not play on the wing, where he has never been effective and where it's really hard to see that he's got the needed qualities. If he can't make it as striker on this team, then we need to offload him.
 

Eyepopper

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Because we didnt sign a RW and because Cavani is a better CF than Martial, and because Rashford will throw up less of a stink about being moved to the RW than Martial will.

For me, Rashfords best position is left forward, despite the assist tonight, he's wasted on the right.
 

AltiUn

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Lack of options, he'll go back to the left soon enough and even popped up there a few times tonight.
 

acnumber9

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His competition has been Dan James. Let’s not make out Rashford has been elite Ronaldo on the left .
You’re right. I mean he’s only scored 36 goals since the start of last season. His peers in the league, Mane and Son, have embarrassed him with their 31 and 34 goals respectively. To be fair to them, they create more for their teammates. Oh wait, they don’t.
 

Waynne

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I'm never confident when this guy is in a goal scoring position. It's the same with Martial.
 

charlenefan

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Lack of options, he'll go back to the left soon enough and even popped up there a few times tonight.
that's also an annoying aspect of it, theres not enough interchanging. Back in the Ronaldo days if he wasn't getting any joy on the right he'd move to the left and vica versa. Rashford only really moved to the left for any real period after we scored and it wasn't long after that he was subbed

obviously don't know if they're instructed to stay in their positions and not swap or not
 
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You’re right. I mean he’s only scored 36 goals since the start of last season. His peers in the league, Mane and Son, have embarrassed him with their 31 and 34 goals respectively. To be fair to them, they create more for their teammates. Oh wait, they don’t.
far better than my reply. This is what I meant to say...
 

acnumber9

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Because it’s the only way to fit him Martial and Cavani in the same team. And they’re our best options up front. What’s the alternative?
We could play Greenwood and give him a chance to play into some form. It’s been more a way of getting Pogba into the team lately. Which I kind of understand. It definitely weakens Rashford’s impact though. And he’s our second best player.
 

Flying_Heckfish

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We need Greenwood back in form, he's much better there. It's a shame Martial has regressed from last year, scoring-wise, as his link-up play at CF has been very good. Cavani is better overall currently, so we see this situation where we play our best three in square holes just to fit them in.
 

Red00012

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he’s had a serious back injury. I don’t think he’s fully fit. But yes. 14 goals so far is good, don’t you think?
We all have to get over this back injury he had 12 months ago. It’s still been used as an excuse. It’s funny how no one mentioned Pogba been out for 2 months last season and getting Covid this season as a reason for his poor form.
If he wasn’t match fit he wouldn’t have started pretty much every game since post lockdown without been subbed off .

I never said his goal return is poor I said his overall match performance isn’t what it should be.
 

Oranges038

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I think Ole wants him, Cavani and Martial as a front three, maybe in the hope that some of Cavani's movement might rub off on the other two. Whether it will work or not remains to be seen.

My view is that both he and Martial are too one dimensional in their approach, they want to cut inside all the time. They both lack significant football intelligence to understand the roles properly and I think they are incapable of transitioning over effectively because they think in their heads it's not their best position and aren't willing to knuckle down and just get on with it. How often are they seen just ambling around and not making effective runs? Or just standing there waiting for the ball. Or standing 30 yards from goal when the ball is out wide waiting to be crossed with only 1 player or no one in the box to meet it.

I don't see any reason why a professional footballer cannot operate on either up top, him and Martial should be able to fluidly swap over during games, even through all three forward positions. It's not like the wide positions are vastly different, he's not going from left wing to right back or centre midfield. It's playing on the wing in a bloody football match, does it really matter that much when you are on 100k+ a week which side it is your playing on. Yeah, he might be slightly better on the left, but he should be able to operate on both to a high level.
 

Holters

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Shoehorning in our three best attackers (Martial, Rashford, Cavani) and Rashford is probably the least worst out of all of them on the right - even though he is much more effective on the left.
 

Scholes_boi

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It was silly really even though he provided the assist. He had no idea what to do on that side. Greenwood would well have given us a goal by the time of that assist.
 

bosnian_red

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To be honest I really like him on the right and it's a breath of fresh air. Was calling for it for a while too. He's been a bit hit and miss at times there, sure, but it makes sense for a lot of reasons.
  1. Cavani is clearly our best striker with the natural movement, aerial threat and experience, and we're at our best in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1. Bruno is best as a #10. Martial can play either as a 9, or on the left, so if Cavani is in, Martial is worth playing on the left (would be a lot better if he was actually in form)
    1. Also allows us to use Pogba on the left wing if we don't want Martial there, while keeping our best hard working midfield trio in Bruno/Fred/McTominay
  2. On the right, we have literally nobody. Mata who can't really do it in the premier league much anymore can play the role, Dan James can play as a right winger but he's nowhere near the required level, and then Greenwood who is a 19 year old out of form striker playing out of position on the right.
  3. If Rashford doesn't play on the right wing, Wan Bissaka is tasked with handling the entire right wing. He can't do that. It's a really tough job, and he's not good enough going forward to handle the entire flank. Plus it then hurts him defensively as he gets out-numbered out there.
    1. Rashford playing on the right has improved Wan Bissaka loads, at both ends of the pitch. He's not getting doubled up on (as then Rashford will stretch the pitch and counter attack into the space), and going forward he is now an overlapping threat, not the entire threat.
    2. To add, Rashford is quite a good crosser of the ball and is capable of whipping it in from deep as well to pick out the runners on the other side.
  4. Probably the biggest point - so much of our build up now goes through the right but is also balanced on the left with Martial still more than capable out there (along with Shaw). It's a much better balanced team as we can build up the play on both sides (stretching the pitch, giving more space in the middle), with both full backs being used properly so it adds a lot more to us. It's no wonder we've become a lot more consistent at actually getting the results now, compared to the flawed team we had before.
No, it might not be Rashfords best position (though I think he has huge potential there and is far more unpredictable on the right). But our alternate options on the left are Martial and Pogba, while our alternate options on the right are Mata/Dan James/Greenwood. It's a world of difference there. It also brings a better level out of the rest, as first it stretches the pitch to open up space for Bruno or Pogba in the middle, while greatly helping out Wan Bissaka (and Shaw staying the same tactically, individually he's just been better for unrelated reasons IMO).
 

Withnail

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We all have to get over this back injury he had 12 months ago. It’s still been used as an excuse. It’s funny how no one mentioned Pogba been out for 2 months last season and getting Covid this season as a reason for his poor form.
If he wasn’t match fit he wouldn’t have started pretty much every game since post lockdown without been subbed off .

I never said his goal return is poor I said his overall match performance isn’t what it should be.
No you didn't. You made a snarky reference to elite Ronaldo.
 
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We all have to get over this back injury he had 12 months ago. It’s still been used as an excuse. It’s funny how no one mentioned Pogba been out for 2 months last season and getting Covid this season as a reason for his poor form.
If he wasn’t match fit he wouldn’t have started pretty much every game since post lockdown without been subbed off .

I never said his goal return is poor I said his overall match performance isn’t what it should be.
even the manger mentioned his fitness and Covid specifically tonight for Pogba.

no offence, this is a shit post. Watch the OGS post match interviews. He talks about it specifically.

You don’t have to use other players to justify your opinion. You can think Both Pogba and Rashford are good players.
 

bosnian_red

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Also if you actually look at whoscoreds average ratings per position, he's rated higher on the right (limited games) than he has been from the left this season. Small sample and who gives a feck about their ratings obviously, but he hasn't been bad at all IMO and has come up with big moments there. Gotta keep in mind that he hasn't played there toooo much so is still adapting (though I think as a youngster he started off out there). But he can dribble well out there, hold width, play good passes and combine well with the other forwards. Want him to get better with his left foot so he's more of a goal threat by cutting in, as right now he cuts in then cuts back onto his right which just makes him delay it a bit.
 

Red00012

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even the manger mentioned his fitness and Covid specifically tonight for Pogba.

no offence, this is a shit post. Watch the OGS post match interviews. He talks about it specifically.

You don’t have to use other players to justify your opinion. You can think Both Pogba and Rashford are good players.
even the manger mentioned his fitness and Covid specifically tonight for Pogba.

no offence, this is a shit post. Watch the OGS post match interviews. He talks about it specifically.

You don’t have to use other players to justify your opinion. You can think Both Pogba and Rashford are good players.
Manager defends players in breaking news.

Well I do it to prove my point, also going back to my point they are both good players on their day but Rashford’s overall match performance in the 90 mins have been poor lately .
 

Teja

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Because we don't have a RW and Rashford on the right offers us a lot more than Greenwood / James do. Probably would've gotten this sorted had it not been for COVID but you play the hand you've been dealt and if there's a title at the end of it, then great.