Marcus Rashford is suddenly, and refreshingly, looking like a totally different player to that of the previous season with an alarming paucity of goals for a striker with his talent and there is one factor in particular that could be the cause of his new lease of life and post-World Cup transformation.
Evidently gaffer Erik ten Hag seems to have gotten Manchester United back on track again this season, and Marcus Rashford appears to be one of the key cogs integral to the club’s new machinery and bounce-back.
Rashford is the club’s current top scorer with 10 goals this season with twice the amount he got across the whole of last term. Importantly, two of Bruno Fernandes’ three assists have been for Rashford goals with the pair have been central to Ten Hag’s set-up.
The former Sporting Lisbon star has been playing a vital role aiding in the revival of his teammate’s flagging form last season. In September, he revealed he had told Rashford: “I don’t care if I miss 10 passes, just focus on receiving the right pass and score it, let the blame be on me.”
This was in the aftermath of a period where Fernandes was receiving flak for his end product. This season he has three goals alongside his assists this campaign, figures way below his usual rate of success. Despite this, there is definitely no doubting his integral role as an essential cog in Ten Hag’s system. When end October came, he was the Premier League’s most creative forward player in terms of moves that created opportunities and shots, noticeably even ahead of Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne.
His creative and tactical play have facilitated the revitalisation of Rashford’s goalscoring feats in the final third. This has gone a long way towards making the England striker – who scored three goals for his country at the World Cup – look like a player refreshingly different to that of last season.
Rashford had been a victim of instability under former gaffer Ralf Rangnick as his form vacillated last season due to the fragile nature of the side carrying on from the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Rashford was one of the players who was greatly affected due to the lack of cohesion and regular game time.
All this had resulted in his future at Old Trafford being subjected to intense scrutiny for the first time in his promising career. Understandably the situation was not alleviated in any way when Rangnick himself left the door open for a then likely Rashford exit by saying: “Suppose he and his agents or his family at one stage of the summer think about maybe going to another club, well then he can do that.”
During the summer, Rashford had supposedly been in touch with Paris Saint-Germain regarding a possible move before Ten Hag’s arrival, following this up in July with an explanation of how he viewed the situation at the club after a season that was largely forgettable.
He said: “Since I have come into the team, it has been a transition period for the club. Finding stability has been difficult.
“That is why we have had so many ups and downs, but at the same time, it is a club that is rich in history. You’re just steadily trying to get that feeling back. But it is not going to happen overnight.”
The end of a rocky 2021/22 season saw Ten Hag bringing with him a new stability and steadiness that refreshingly impacted United, one that has thoroughly aided and abetted in Rashford’s dramatic transformation. This was also positively facilitated by a pre-season devoid of injury which helped him gain momentum, and after navigating a challenging start to the campaign, the attacker is again back to form and has been one of the club’s best players.
The rock steady sturdiness that Ten Hag has been successfully in instilling is something Fernandes pointed out following the club’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Tuesday evening.
“I think the main thing for us, because we’ve been in difficult moments with the changing of coaches,” he told NBC Sports. “We find now a coach that gave us stability, that was really important and something that was missing, and big discipline.
“That, for me, was something that was massive on our team that we need.” Rashford has admitted he is enjoying life under Ten Hag amid his status as a line-up regular.
Speaking to Amazon Prime after the win over Forest, he said: “When you’re not in the team and you’re coming on it is a different mindset, in terms of you’re having to think about making an impact all the time and you’re not quite sure when you’re going to get another chance on the pitch.
“It [starting regularly] is definitely a different mindset and mentality, but I’m enjoying doing what I’m doing at the minute.”
This is the type of consistency that Rashford needs in order to thrive and perform well consistently.