Former Manchester United striker Andy Cole believes Marcus Rashford has gone back to basics this season and is playing similar to how he did when he first broke into the team.
The 24-year-old looks like a new man under Erik ten Hag and has brought real attacking potency to the side in the absence of Anthony Martial. His standout early season form has also played a role in keeping Cristiano Ronaldo rooted to the bench and resulted in him being nominated for the Premier League ’s Player of the Month award for September.
Rashford has already scored three Premier League goals this season, which is one fewer than he managed across the entirety of the last league campaign. He’s also bagged himself two assists, again matching his total for the previous full season.
And Cole believes he could play a big part in getting United back into the Champions League this year. Speaking to manutd.com, he said: “It’s nice to see (Rashford doing well), he’s got the confidence back, scoring goals.
“I think he’ll be really happy with that. If he can propel Manchester United forward this season, gets us into – I’m not sure what position we are going to end up in exactly, but if we can finish in the top four, it’ll be good.”
The Red Devils' former number nine also believes the striker is playing more like the Rashford of old, which has been key to his return to form: “It’s the first time we’ve seen Marcus run in behind and stretch teams since he first got into the first team. I think he went away from his strengths (last season), which was stretching teams.
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“If you look at how he’s playing now to when he first got into the team, people will turn around and say, ‘that’s the Marcus Rashford of old. If he sticks to that, he’ll score goals.”
Some of these adaptions to Rashford’s game can be captured by comparing his underlying numbers from this season to the last. Last season he averaged 3.8 dribble attempts per 90, that’s fallen to just 1.9 this season. He’s also attempting fewer carries with the ball too, down from 29.7 per 90 in the last campaign to 23.4 in this one.
Crucially though, his output in terms of shots has increased from 1.61 to 2.59 per 90. What this highlights is that Rashford is focusing less on contributing to attacking moves and instead showing a greater desire to finish them off.
Thanks to his return to form, Rashford looked nailed on to get called back up to Gareth Southgate’s most recent England squad, however an untimely injury saw him ruled out.
He’s close to a return though, and should he pick up from where he left off - something United fans will hope to see - then he’s got every chance of securing a place on the plane to Qatar in two months' time.
