Marcus Rashford Manchester United
Ralf Rangnick is hopeful Marcus Rashford can regain form in Manchester United’s run-in but stressed it is down to the player to end his prolonged slump in form. Rashford has scored five goals this season and only one of them has come as a starter. The 24-year-old was omitted from the England squad for the March friendly wins over Switzerland and Ivory Coast and it emerged he is considering his future in the wake of the derby snub last month.
Ralf Rangnick said: “For me, it was clear that we would play Cristiano up front and with the three central midfielders. But then came the information that Cristiano doesn’t feel well and that he will probably be out for the game. Then the question was what do we do? Are we going to play with Marcus as a central striker and drop one of our central midfielders or do we play with Bruno as a false nine plus Paul on eight? I don’t think that this had any effect on the rhythm of the game in the first-half but when we realised after 55 minutes that we need a goal we brought on Marcus for Scotty. He had a yellow card, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken him off. But with a yellow card, I think it was the right decision to take him off. Marcus, it’s no secret that he is not having his best time right now, it has to do with rhythm and confidence as well, yeah. Again, it’s our job to help him to get this confidence back and that is why I decided to bring him on. In the end, he has to [lift] himself obviously, but the only thing we can do is speak to him regularly and tell him what we expect from him and what he should do. The rest has to be done by himself. There are quite a few examples this season of players, some of them are still here with us and one or two of them are no longer here, have shown that it is possible to develop within a couple of weeks a level of confidence where you can be a different player again. We all know that Marcus can play better but, again, in the end, he has to take the steps himself.”
