Marcus Rashford made his 300th appearance for Manchester United on Saturday, coming on as a second half substitute for Paul Pogba in a hard-fought 3-2 win over Norwich City in the Premier League.
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Six years after a promising teenager broke into the first team, Marcus Rashford is becoming a man but obviously struggling to keep up with the standard he started with. Yet, it can not be said that he would not fulfil his potentials but recent events is showing it will probably be very tough.
The 24 year old, who became the youngest player to score for Manchester United when he made his debut in a Europa League second leg tie against Danish club Midtjylland, in 2016. Rashford scored a brace in that match and followed it up with another the following weekend in a 3-2 Premier League win against Arsenal.
In the same season, he also became the youngest ever goal scorer in a Manchester derby match as his only goal helped United end a barren run at the Ethiad since 2012, with a 1-0 win over their City rivals under Louis van Gaal.
At 18 years, Rashford also scored a crucial goal in United’s run to win the Emirates FA Cup in 2017, where they beat Crystal Palace 2-1 in the final thanks to goals from Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard, with the former scoring in normal time to restore parity after Jason Puncheon had given the Eagles the lead.
Even though United had not win the FA Cup for over 11 years, the teenager, Marcus Rashford, due to the brilliance he had shown in his few months with the first team was trusted to lead the line and albeit he was not on the scoresheet, he had a good game in helping United seal the win.
Jesse Lingard scored the winner of the final in the 110th minute of a game that required injury time after the draw in normal time and thus Marcus Rashford got his first senior trophy few months after his first team debut.
The season ended with the teenager scoring eight goals in 18 appearances for the first team while Manchester United finished fifth in the Premier League, missing out on a Champions League place.
His breakthrough was so impressive that he won the Jimmy Murphy Young Players of The Year Award and in October 2016, he was named as runner-up to Portugal’s Renato Sanches in the Golden Boy award for best European player under the age of 21.
There were proposals that he be included in the England squad for the Euro 2016 but the coaching staff at the club dismissed the thought while conceding it may be harmful for the player’s development. Then England manager Roy Hodgson also did say the Rashford should be allowed to ‘develop in peace.’
In a turn of event, Rashford was named in England’s final squad for the Euros and about four months of making his first team debut, he was already involved with the National Team and even scored on his debut in the 2-1 win over Australia in a warm up match, becoming the third youngest player to score on their debut for England since Tommy Lawton in 1938.
He featured as a substitute in England’s 2-1 win over Wales in the European Championship, becoming the youngest player to play for Three Lions in the competition, breaking Wayne Rooney’s record since 2004.
Back at United, even though United brought in Zlatan Ibrahimovic in that summer, he was still able to rack up 53 appearances, the most of any of the club’s, including as substitute in the 2016-17 season while helping the club to Europa League success under new manager, José Mourinho.
He was deployed on the wings in most of the games and was instrumental as United won the double with the Carabao Cup and the Europa League in José Mourinho’s first season. That made it four trophies for the Mancunian after just one full season with the first team having also lift the curtain raiser, the Community Shield at Wembley.
Rashford scored eleven goals and assisted seven others. He was so good that José Mourinho stated that it would make no sense for a player already well involved in first team football to join the England squad for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship though the manager stressed that he can not stop him from participating.
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Marcus Rashford with Jose Mourinho during the latter’s time as Manchester United coach (Getty Images)
Rashford would however later made the decision not to go to the youth Championship.
He finished behind French duo of Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembele in the golden boy Award and as at October, he already has contributed 12 goal in 16 games for United. He also helped them qualify for the knockout rounds of the Champions League with a match winning performance against CSKA Moscow.
At the end of that season, Rashford had made 52 appearances, scoring a total of 13 goals and assisting nine other. Jose Mourinho rejected the notion that the then 19 year old Rashford be sent out on loan for more playing time because he thought the player was well involved with the team in the season.
In his third full season, he already became an integral part of the first team and started in 26 of his 33 Premier League appearances, reaching ten league goals for the first time and assisting six more as United finished sixth.
In the Champions League, he featured in all the games in United’s run to a quarter final loss to Barcelona, scoring two goals including a decisive penalty, which saw them eliminate PSG in the round of 16.
He was voted third in the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year Award. Although the club’s poor performances saw manager, José Mourinho lost his job midway through the season.
The Portuguese manager had said that Marcus Rashford is not the No. 9 to lead Manchester United as he would not score many goals as you’d expected from a No. 9 but concedes he is really good on the flanks.
“Rashford is not the target man, he doesn’t score as many goals as a striker should do. So I think from the side you will get him to numbers of 10-12 goals per season. Playing from the sides he can be a very good player, probably better than at nine.”
The arrival of Bruno Fernandes in the winter of 2020 was good omen for Rashford as well as other attackers in the team with the Portuguese lifting United attackers with his playmaking genius.
Rashford had his most productive season in the end, scoring 17 goals in the Premier League as United finished third, behind Liverpool and their city rivals, Manchester City.
He was also named in the Europa League team of the season having made just four starts in helped United to a semi final finish, where they lost out to eventual Champions, Sevilla.
In the September 2020, he scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League, becoming the first United player to score a hat-trick in the competition since Robin van Persie in 2014. He did so as a substitute, becoming only the second player to do so for the club since his manager at the time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who replaced Jose Mourinho in 2018.
Though United were unable to qualify for the knockout rounds, he scored six times having featured in all the group games and in the Europa League, he scored twice as United ended up beaten finalists, falling to Villarreal on penalties in a match played at the Stadion Gdańsk in Poland.
After so much hype in the 2016 European Championship, one would expect Rashford to have developed into a finished product and a regular starter for England.
Through he was well involved in the UEFA Nations League in 2019, he was unable to start a game in England’s run to the final of the European Championship in 2021, where they lost to Italy with Rashford, who was an extra time substitute missing one of England’s penalties in the shoot out.
After the Euros, Rashford decided to go for a surgery on a shoulder injury he had been nursing for months and he missed the start of the season.
The arrival of Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo did affect his involvement but it is obvious the 24 year old’s form has dipped since the last season. The emergence of Anthony Elanga has also given Ralf Rangnick an option which at the moment is better than Rashford.
While his influence continues to grow socially, Rashford has not been able to match that with his infield performances and that is a big worry for his future at a club, where fans continue to demand the club return to the top where they used to be.
For a player so much loved by the Manchester United faithfuls, Rashford is slowly losing his place in the team and that is also affecting his international career with new players coming through the ranks and staking claims in the Three Lions team.
Marcus Rashford for now doesn’t look like a player who will be heading for Qatar with the squad for the world cup later this year but with the news that a new manager will be at the helm next season, the Mancunian golden boy can only hope that he can do so much to convince Gareth Southgate at the start of next season before the final squad list will be released.
(Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
His substitute appearance in Saturday’s win over Norwich City was his 300th appearance for United, which has produced a total 93 goals and 57 assists.
In agreement with the numbers, it is only right that one agrees with José Mourinho’s take that Rashford doesn’t have what it takes to be United’s No. 9.
But then even as a winger, he is slowly losing the abilities that made him achieve so much whilst a teenager. It is only up to the player to get his career back on track and a good avenue to do that will be under a new manager at the start of next season.
He will hope to be in the plans of the new manager in order to rejuvenate his glooming career.
