Jose taught me to become more savvy in box, reveals Marcus
MARCUS Rashford has revealed how a talk from former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho helped him become more ‘savvy’ in the penalty area.
After watching Liverpool lose 1-0 at Southampton, where he felt striker Sadio Mane should have been awarded a spot-kick, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said United had been given “more penalties in two years than I’ve had in five and a half years” in charge.
Rashford received the Football Writers’ Association 2021
Tribute Award yesterday, and in a wide-ranging interview was asked about why United might be perceived to be getting more than their fair share of penalties.
The England international believes much of it is down to an attack-minded squad always looking to be on the front foot, as well as being able to maximise any opportunities.
“As a forward line, we want to go and score goals,” Rashford said. “When you are making runs in behind or you are dribbling with the ball and if you see a challenge coming, you don’t want to get tackled because you are looking at an opportunity to score a goal.
“There is no way you are going to let somebody take the ball off you, so for me it is just a case of us wanting to score goals and the teams wanting to defend goals — and, you know, penalties can happen. But there have been times when we have probably not got penalties.
“I remember when Jose (Mourinho) was manager, there were five or six times I can remember where I should have had a penalty.
“Jose ended up saying to me,
‘If you are not savvy about the way you do it, then you are not going to (get) give(n) it’. After that, we started to get a few penalties.
“It was something that in terms of development you have to learn that and understand it.”
United’s title credentials are set to come under the microscope when they travel to Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
It has been nearly four years since Liverpool lost a league game at home — in April 2017 against Crystal Palace — while United have won just one of their last 10 matches against one of their fiercest rivals.
“They are hard to beat at home, for us to beat them we are going to have to be at our best,” Rashford said. “Liverpool and (Manchester) City, there are no better games. As a kid from Manchester that supports United, there are no bigger games to score goals in. It is definitely a game I am looking forward to.
“We are a team which is still improving, we are in a good run of form, so we have to just try to keep focusing on ourselves and do the best we can do. As long as we do that, you walk off the pitch with no regrets.”