Gary Neville believes expectations should be lowered around Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford as Cristiano Ronaldo wasn't scoring a goal a game at 22-year-old either.
Rashford was enjoying one of his finest seasons to date prior to the postponement of the Premier League, netting 14 in 22 league appearances, before a back injury saw him sidelined indefinitely.
The forward is a regular in the senior England national team and remains one of United's most important players when fit.
Despite his form this season, there has still been some questions over his consistency in front of goal.
Neville thinks the pressure on his shoulders must be relieved as United legend Ronaldo wasn't the greatest finisher at Rashford's age either.
"Marcus Rashford, to be fair, is still a young player [who’s] developing, he needs to be persisted with," he said.
"He will be persisted with because Manchester United believe in him, and they should believe in him because he’s a great talent.
"When you’re sort of a young player... Alan Shearer didn’t score a goal a game at Southampton when he first broke in. Simple as that.
"Cristiano [Ronaldo] didn’t do it at Manchester United when he first came to Manchester. We shouldn’t be expecting the same of Marcus Rashford."
United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka recently hailed Rashford as his toughest opponent in training, believing the England international has helped develop his own game.
Asked who his most difficult opponent was, he said: "I'd say Marcus.
"He's just so unpredictable. When I first joined United and came up against him in training, he was doing things that I just really didn't expect.
"I thought he'd go a certain way and he'd go the other way, or I thought he was about to do one thing and he did another, so he's really tricky to play against.
"I enjoy that though. It has been really good for my own development to test myself against him and the other attackers we have at the club."
