by Marcus Rashford is standing in front of me on a sunny afternoon at the University of California at San Diego in July. He is 25, in excellent condition, has a rare talent and scored 30 goals for his youth club the previous term. He is also 13 days into a new bumper £325,000-a-week, five-year deal that makes him Manchester United’s highest earner, and the calm of pre-season offers endless optimism for the season ahead. But despite that there is a lack of warmth and almost zero eye contact from Rashford. It is a puzzle.
It’s a player’s choice, but Rashford’s performance that day now feels like a telling precursor to his current campaign. On the pitch, over 26 appearances, he has produced mostly independent displays and has returned just four goals and five assists. Off the pitch, meanwhile, he was spotted celebrating his birthday in a Manchester nightclub on the evening of the 3-0 derby win against Manchester City at Old Trafford in October, and on Friday reported he was ill with for training after allegedly being out the night before. in Belfast.
Related: Marcus Rashford ruled out by Erik ten Hag but could still play against Wolves
Rashford was too ill to be part of Sunday’s FA Cup win against Newport County, Rashford instead worked at Carrington United’s base, the club said. Look at how he was strong enough to undertake a training session but not enough to travel to south Wales. An answer may have been offered in Erik ten Hag’s pathetic response when asked about the player after the win at Rodney Parade. “He reported sick and the rest is an internal matter,” said the manager. “I’ll deal with it.”
Here, again, we find the recurring issue that plagues Ten Hag: a non-football problem and the consequence that he has to solve it within the memoranda of complications arising from a player today being a one-man corporation as well. Earlier this season there was the Jadon Sancho problem; now it’s Rashford, who can hire a private jet to fly in and out of another country for a midweek break and hire his own PR operation if he’s got any guns blazing – for example, images of a night out in Wales Feirste. – to be seen later.
Ten Hag have to do all this while also overseeing a recruitment campaign of uneven results, and knowing whether Rashford can be kept at bay and lured to the top could be crucial to save the Dutchman’s job. And all this is to gain public confidence in being the manager of Manchester United.
In one way it shouldn’t matter whether Rashford broke any rules – last Thursday was a day off for all United players – because for the elite athlete playing the kind of cold-eyed focus that drove, say, Cristiano Ronaldo. to relentlessly pursue perfection during his time at Old Trafford. This is not a moral stance on whether nightclubs are an appropriate destination for the season but rather an acceptance of the mantra of self-motivation and no regrets due to the knowledge that time passes quickly with a career extremely short.
Why Rashford, the golden prospect who announced himself under Louis van Gaal over three days in February 2016 by scoring twice on his debut against Midtyjlland in a 5-1 Europa League win and under burning against Arsenal in a 3-2 win in the League, again he lost his mojo? The struggle for consistency is the story of the last eight years of Rashford, as shown by his goal numbers: eight, 11, 13, 13, 22, 21, five and 30. And how, when losing form, his body language shifts from an irresistible force. lost boy.
Ten Hag said Rashford’s post-derby birthday trip to Chinawhite was “unacceptable” and then used the exact same language as he did at Newport: “It’s an internal matter.” Here the manager tries to work as a master disciplinary sergeant and a sensitive UN diplomat. As the Sancho episode showed, this can be unsustainable.
With Sancho, Ten Hag showed care and patience. The manager allowed him time off last winter to regain some much-needed fitness and focus, and two months before he pulled out of the trip to Arsenal that broke up his working relationship he said he was “in good spirits”. on the beginning.
Before the Chinawhite and Belfast incidents, Ten Hag was often asked about Rashford’s dipping form. Every time protection was offered and the player defended, as required by the main rule of man management. But all managers lose credibility with the rest of the dressing room when they defend a player who joined the club just hours after being part of a team that won 3-0 at their cross-country rivals. town and, not long after, they seem to have gone to Northern Ireland. to a party at a dark venue called Thompsons Garage before reporting sick for training a few hours later.
Ten Hag said the first was “unacceptable” so we’re waiting to hear about his billing on the second. Last year he dropped Rashford from United’s starting line-up for the New Year’s Eve trip to Wolves. The offense was too sleepy and the player’s reaction, after coming on as a substitute in the second half, was to score the winner. Afterwards he said that it was “a mistake that can happen”, that he was “disappointed not to play” and “I understand” Ten Hag’s decision. It’s left to us to figure out whether Rashford offered a subtext here.
On agreeing terms for a deal which sees him join Casemiro, a five-time European champion, at Old Trafford, Rashford declared: “I can guarantee that I will give everything to help the team the level that can be achieved. of. I couldn’t be more excited about this manager going forward.” A fair question now would be: what is the future and is the manager excited about sharing it with Rashford?
