Another reason to continue to believe in Rashford is that Man Utd lacks options to replace him. Despite spending nearly 200 million pounds in the summer, this club did not recruit any wing strikers. The situation was even worse when Sancho and Ten Hag had a conflict.

 

The only alternative currently is to let Garnacho play. The possibility of him being placed in the starting lineup increased after many positive performances, when he was brought onto the field from the bench. However, the striker’s problem is not ensuring tactical discipline to have a starting spot against top opponents.

 

His best performance came against Palace in the Carabao Cup. However, the opponent only launched a weak lineup. He had difficulty starting against Wolves and Tottenham and did not contribute much defensively.Rashford has a reason to justify his lackluster performance this season. He was placed as a striker from the start because both Martial and rookie Hojlund were injured. The striker frankly admitted that he feels most comfortable running on the left wing, instead of being alone on the front line.

Rashford got off to a good start against Bayern Munich and took advantage of only having to face reluctant right-back Konrad Laimer. But after Bayern rose thanks to Andre Onana’s mistake, his performance also faded.

He was almost ‘invisible’ in the match against Burnley three days later, when United won minimally. Rashford did not put any pressure on Burnley’s defense and was not enthusiastic about playing, especially compared to Hojlund and Hannibal Mejbri.

 

In the loss to Palace, Rashford had his worst match since the beginning of the season. His dribbles became deadlocked as he repeatedly crashed into Palace defenders. And when he had the opportunity to handle it, he also made the wrong decision. In a rare situation, he overtook the opponent and tried to cross into the penalty area. The ball flew high and went to the wrong place.

Considering United’s low number of goals last season and low overall xG (expected probability of scoring), it’s not difficult to conclude that Rashford was the reason the Red Devils finished third last season.

He scored 17 goals, accounting for 29% of United’s total goals last season. He scored 9 more goals than Fernandes, who is second; 11 more goals than Martial and Jadon Sancho, both players scored 6 goals.