Marcus Rashford’s performance for Manchester United against Ipswich Town showed how much he has developed as a player. In Manchester United’s 5-2 win over Ipswich ...
Marcus Rashford’s performance for Manchester United against Ipswich Town showed how much he has developed as a player.
In Manchester United’s 5-2 win over Ipswich Town in the Premier League, Marcus Rashford made his first start for the Red Devils in over 600 days.
Last week, Rashford made a promising cameo from the bench against Hull, and it warranted a starting spot against Ipswich.
The 28-year-old responded to Michael Carrick’s trust with a brilliant display against Ipswich, including some much-improved defensive work and glimpses of a trait that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was keen to nurture.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
When Rashford was playing under Solskjaer at United, the Norwegian was desperate to get him on the scoresheet more often.
Solskjaer often spoke highly of Rashford’s finishing, and he drummed on about Rashford scoring more scrappy goals.
As quoted by The Guardian, in 2019 Solskjaer said: “Rashy’s goals sometimes are worldies, but you see improvement, maturity and the change in Cristiano’s goals from when he was young to now.
“He scores more from inside the box and that’s what Rashy has to improve on. He’ll get five to 10 extra goals from it.
“He’s still only 21 so you don’t expect the consistency yet in all his play, but he’s always got that quality. His finishing, his striking of the ball, his attitude, that’s always going to be with him.”
Solskjaer was desperate to get Rashford crashing into the box and scoring from close range. It didn’t quite happen against Ipswich, but there were very promising signs.
On several occasions against Ipswich, Rashford abandoned his touchline positioning and went charging into the box to connect with crosses and cause danger.
When United attacked down the right, Rashford drifted into the box from the left and came close to scoring twice from back-post crosses.
In his first United spell, Rashford (sometimes frustratingly) would camp on the left touchline and hover around the box.
But now at 28 years old, Rashford is making the most of his physicality in and around the box. He drew one fantastic save against Ipswich and had one stretched effort go wide from doing exactly that.
As Solskjaer said in 2019, it was the one change in Cristiano Ronaldo’s game that gave him an extra 5-10 goals per season in a United shirt.
Rashford is proving that he is now ready to implement that into his game.
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