Manchester United’s dressing room have reportedly thrown their weight behind Marcus Rashford - and believe he’s a better option than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Having endured a difficult season under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, the England international has shown signs of his class under new boss Erik ten Hag. In six Premier League starts, Rashford has three goals and two assists - just one shy of his total contributions from last term.
Rashford has been handed a regular berth in the United starting XI thanks in no small part to the summer speculation surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo. The 37-year-old was the undisputed starting central striker last term, but missed Ten Hag’s first pre-season in charge amid reports he was pushing to leave the club.
Ronaldo was absent from United’s summer tour of Asia and Australia, making just one appearance before the competitive stuff got underway last month. And Ten Hag has opted to use the Portuguese icon from the bench in all but one of the Red Devils’ matches so far this season.
The Sun report that with Rashford rather than Ronaldo in the team, United’s players feel less pressured and are able to express themselves more. There is also a belief the veteran striker isn’t up to speed to play in the new system and that Rashford gives them a greater chance of achieving their goals.
Ten Hag reportedly feels similar and has set the 24-year-old a target of scoring 20 times this season and forcing himself back into Gareth Southgate’s England squad for Qatar. A source told the Sun that he wants Rashford to be his No.1 striker and believes that under his guidance, he can become one of the best strikers in the world.
It is understood that Rashford’s agent met with Paris Saint-Germain officials during the summer window to assess the viability of their interest. But going into what could be the final year of his contract, he appears to be playing with a smile on his face once again.
"Once again, it's difficult for me to talk about the past but I see a happy Marcus Rashford, I see some phases in his game that we could improve and we worked really hard the last two and a half months with him on different aspects and he likes it and he wants to transfer it to the pitch and that's what you see in this moment,” Ten Hag said of the forward last week.
"It starts with happiness, he really is coming in every day, enjoys it, he's really smiling, a positive vibe and if you want to stick together a way of play and transfer different aspects of your game and are happy, you will bring more of a contribution to the team, to the performance, to the result and also to the development.”
United retain the option to extend Rashford’s contract for another 12 months and Ten Hag insists that the club are fully in control of the situation.
