When Manchester United announced that Marcus Rashford had signed a five-year contract with the club just two summers ago, it was delivered with the caption: “Where you belong.”
Within 18 months it became abundantly apparent that Rashford no longer belonged.
During a rare interview last December, Rashford declared himself ready for a “new challenge”, discussing the prospect of leaving his boyhood club as a matter of “when” rather than “if”. The 27-year-old is yet to appear for United since those comments and seems unlikely to ever do so again after securing a second successive loan away from Old Trafford.
Rashford once described himself as “a seven-year-old boy with a dream”. It now looks more like a nightmare. What went so wrong?
Failing Amorim’s Attitude Test
There is one blatantly obvious figure who is keen to take credit for Rashford’s exit. Following confirmation of his loan move to Aston Villa last winter, United’s incoming head coach Ruben Amorim proudly declared: “I’m here saying that was my decision.”
It all started so well. Rashford scored the first goal of Amorim’s reign after just 81 seconds. Despite only making four Premier League appearances for the Portuguese tactician, the mercurial forward scored three goals—a tally only two players in the squad bettered over the subsequent four months.
Yet, the pair clashed over application rather than output.
“I couldn’t get Marcus to see the way you’re supposed to play football and to train the way I see it,” Amorim lamented after overlooking Rashford for 13 consecutive matches. This frosty standoff—which seemed to force Amorim to come with new ways to tear Rashford apart in the media each week, including admitting that he would rather have a 63-year-old goalkeeping coach on the bench than his former first choice forward—only ended with the player’s move to Villa.
“The reason is the training, the way I see what footballers should do in training, in life, it’s every day, every detail,” Amorim also added, hinting at the controversy surrounding Rashford’s off-field activities—which was not an entirely new complaint.
The Wider Malaise
The dark cloud hanging over Rashford did not spontaneously form as soon as Amorim strode through Old Trafford’s creaking doors. Barely three months after signing his five-year deal, Erik ten Hag wrote off Rashford’s decision to go to a nightclub after a Manchester derby defeat as “unacceptable”.
In January 2024, the perennially scrutinised forward was feasted upon by every corner of the English media after getting caught out in two grimy Northern Irish nightclubs on consecutive weeknights before calling in sick for training.
But that Belfast blowout does not explain why Rashford has only sporadically enjoyed bursts of good form in his career to date. The natural left winger has surpassed 20 combined goals and assists in just two of his 10 Premier League seasons. It’s no coincidence that these campaigns coincide with two years when Manchester United finished third, playing a brand of direct counter-attacking football which perfectly meshes with Rashford’s strengths.
Marcus Rashford’s Man Utd Stats in the Premier League
Stats via FBref.
During Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s first full season at the helm, Rashford racked up 17 Premier League goals at the sharp tip of a reductive but effective transition team. This self-imposed ideal of adhering to the ‘Manchester United way’ got inside the players’ heads.
As Solskjær would later explained to the Stick to Football podcast: “I always looked at them as we need to be Manchester United, try to be United, don’t defend, don’t be counterattacking, just let the players go out there, go toe-to-toe with them because otherwise there’s no point at being at Manchester United.” It did not work. “They weren’t ready,” Solskjær sighed. “Just not good enough.”
Ten Hag bounded into Old Trafford with those same ideals of imagined grandeur but quickly reverted to a counter-attacking approach after the scarring experience of a 4–0 Brentford thumping in the August heat. The Dutch coach went so far as to declare: “We want to be the best transition team in the world.”
In a way, it worked. United finished third in 2022–23 while scoring more goals on the counter than any other Premier League side—and Rashford was responsible for a third of that haul. Unlike Solskjær, Ten Hag never even tried to develop a more well-rounded style, instead doubling down on a transitional approach which soon became painfully predictable. In 2023–24, United’s entire attacking output plummeted. The team—and, as a consequence, Rashford—were muzzled.
Hot Spotlight
Many fans seemingly find it easy to forget that these nylon-clad pixels darting around our screen are actual human beings with the same insecurities as the rest of us. When Rashford was asked to describe his miraculous 2022–23 campaign, which brought a career-best haul of 30 goals across all competitions, the young Mancunian put it down to finally finding the “right headspace”.
That has been difficult for a graduate of United’s academy at a time of such steep decline. The legendary Class of ‘92 had the likes of Éric Cantona and Roy Keane and Peter Schmeichel to bear the brunt of media scrutiny. By contrast, the spotlight has shone almost solely on Rashford. Rasmus Højlund’s miserable goal return or Patrick Dorgu’s intermittent control of his limbs can only divert attention for so long.
“I can’t say I’ve ever really enjoyed the attention off the pitch,” Rashford told Sir Andy Murray, another figure familiar with shouldering the burden of hope created by millions of fans, during COVID lockdown. “You always think about playing in the first team, scoring goals for United or at Old Trafford or any stadium, but you forget how your life can change overnight...I probably wasn’t as prepared for that bit as I was the actual going on the pitch and playing.”
It brings to mind a quote from Chicago Bulls superstar Dennis Rodman, who would pop up at WWE events with a fleet of supermodels in tow during his consistently sporadic training absences rather than pull a sickie after staying up a little late in a private booth at Belfast’s Thompsons Garage. “It’s the pressure of the bull----,” Rodman would moan. “I’ll play the game for free but you get paid for the bull----.” Rashford has been subjected to more pressure than most.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as What Went Wrong for Marcus Rashford at Man Utd?.
