MANCHESTER UNITED A CLUB BUILT ON FAIR PRINCIPLES AND REALISTIC GOALS ?
"Perform at a top-level consistently or you don’t deserve the right to play for Manchester United at all". This seems to be the main demand floating around Old Trafford for the past week after Manchester United hosted a decent Astana team from Kazakhstan.
Before the kick-off to last Thursday's Europa League match against Astana, there was a strong aroma of belief around the Manchester United fans that Ole Gunner Solskjaers men where going to emerge from last Thursday's Europa League group stage game as winners of the match. As Thursday's game came to its conclusion, Manchester United did indeed give their fans the victory that was expected of the Red Devils thanks to yet another sweetly taken goal by the new wonder kid around Old Trafford. While Mason Greenwood's rise from the youth academy straight into the spotlight continues to be appreciated, Greenwood did not seem to be the talk of the town as far as Manchester was concerned. Surprisingly, the attention rather shifted to another Manchester United academy graduate Marcus Rashford.
There will be a handful of reporters whom will honestly declare that after witnessing three young, talented, Manchester United youth player from the Manchester United youth academy make their first full senior debut and perform well the topic of discussion after last weeks match will be putting Marcus Rashford on the bench a couple of bad performances but here we are. While young Manchester United starlets such as Angel Gomez, Tahith Chong and the already established new wonder kid Mason Greenwood were all soaking in the first of what is hoped to be one in a long line of appearances as all three youngsters performed exquisitely during last weeks Thursday encounter with Astana Fc in the Europa League, no one would have guessed that a number of Manchester United fans and a couple of journalists will make time to criticize a particular Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford for putting up such an “Unacceptable” performance.
In all fairness, up until last week, Marcus Rashford was playing amazing football since the middle of last season up until last Thursday registering at least one goal and two dribbles a game but apparently once you are one of the top performance at Manchester United you are not allowed to have a dip in performance for a couple of matches. Perfection is key at Manchester United and drops in performance level means spending time on the bench. That was the message delivered by the Manchester United fans this past week through social media.
After the victory against Astana this past Thursday, Manchester United fans voiced their disapproval on their English striker demanding the striker be dropped to the bench for other forwards. In all fairness to the fans point, Marcus Rashfords performance in front of goal has depleted a little bit even before the English striker scored a spot-kick for Manchester United against opponents Leicester City. Netting one goal in three of Rashfords last three appearances for Manchester United already built a strong case for Manchester United fans to request manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer puts Rashford on the bench to be replaced by new boy Mason Greenwood.
However, the final nail in the coffin came against Astana in the recent Europa League clash when a usually clinical Marcus Rashford failed to put Manchester United ahead on the night after creating a good opportunity for himself. While putting a player whom has been a consistent performer for Manchester United on the bench simply because the player had a couple of bad performance appears unreasonable, the idea of manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer using Rasfords recent dip in performance as an opportunity to create more game time for his upcoming youngsters in the quadruplet of Mason Greenwood, Tahith Chong, Axel Tuanzebe and Angel Gomez.
While the idea of promoting four promising youngsters from the Manchester United academy creates the positive image that Manchester United will indeed focus on developing homegrown talents, Solskjaer must be careful not to damage the confidence in Rashford that has made Marcus Rashford into such a reliable talent for Manchester United in recent times. Manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer was asked in a recent press conference how he as the Manchester United manager thought about Marcus Rashfords recent struggle to find the back of the net to which the manager replied by saying:
“He is getting the chances. Of cause he can have three today, the keeper made a few fantastic saves. I don’t worry about that no. We are working every single day in training with Marcus and he wants to improve and he wants to be better. “
When asked about the level of faith Solskjaer himself has put on both Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford in terms both players increasing their goal tally for Manchester United and if increasing both player goal record is something Manchester United plans to work on specifically the manager replied
“Well, we have scored all the goals we have scored and they have come from our forwards with Marcus(Rashford) Anthony (Martial) Dan James. So I'm sure they will chip in many many goals and Marcus (Rashford) is still young, he will improve. You won’t hit your peak as a striker until you are 26-27 and he is still learning what finishes to make in different circumstances.”
Judging from the Manchester United managers comments, all signs point to the manager still having full confidence that Marcus Rashford will continue to score goals as the season progresses. Which implies that while the Manchester United fans continue to have their heart set on seeing Marcus Rashford come off the bench, Ole Gunner Solskjaer appears unlikely to remove the English striker from the starting lineup any time soon.
