United boss purring at Rashford’s power play
WAS Marcus Rashford up for this one? The answer was delivered forcefully and emphatically in the 20th minute at Old Trafford.
Not many people get the better of Virgil van Dijk, let alone dump Liverpool’s man mountain on his backside, but that’s exactly what Rashford did here.
The two men chased to compete for a ball in front of the dugouts and former Celtic defender Van Dijk was the favourite to win the contest. He usually is.
Suddenly, though, he was toppling over the touchline and the Manchester United striker was off with the ball at his feet.
‘You can see the boy is growing and getting stronger,’ said United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as he discussed the moment afterwards.
‘It was the best game he’s played for ages and the best in his ten months with me.’
The 21-year-old striker is no longer a boy. He has bulked up since bursting on to the scene in 2016 and developed broad shoulders, both physically and metaphorically.
Not many men his age are asked to lead the line at a club of United’s stature.
Rashford has struggled under the burden at times. His body language around Carrington recently has not gone unnoticed and it has carried over on to the pitch.
He is no longer an automatic starter for England, despite his excellent goal against Bulgaria last week.
‘I thought he looked beat two weeks ago,’ said TV pundit and former United skipper Gary Neville yesterday.
‘I felt he needed to come out of the team. But the international break has done him good. He looked like himself.’
He didn’t make the most positive of starts either. When the ball broke for Rashford close to halfway with open space ahead of him, instead of seizing the chance to attack, he held out his hands in desperation and passed it back to his defence. Then, after Andreas Pereira drilled a low cross to the penalty spot, Rashford was flat-footed as the ball was easily clear to safety. It was exactly the kind of moment another TV pundit, Alan Shearer, highlighted when he criticised the striker’s lack of movement in the defeat to West Ham last month. When opportunity knocked again in the 36th minute, however, Rashford was alive to it. Daniel James crossed from the right and he made for the near post before checking his run to duck back behind Joel Matip. The ball reached Rashford in front of goal and there was never a chance he would miss from there. ‘We had a little video session yesterday and exactly that happened,’ said Solskjaer. It was only Rashford’s fourth goal of the season for United and his second from open play, which tells its own story. It’s also worth noting that the man who also scored twice against Liverpool here in March 2018 has a better strike rate against the established ‘Big Six’ than the smaller clubs. He was a real handful for Jurgen Klopp’s team yesterday, and so too was James, as United played two up front but asked them to stay as wide as possible. Liverpool didn’t know quite how to pick them up and were vulnerable to their pace on the break. Rashford was inches away from a crucial second goal in the 67th minute but dragged his shot wide — before he was replaced by Anthony Martial. The Frenchman’s return from injury after nearly eight weeks out will lift some of the burden off Rashford. The decision not to sign a replacement for either Romelu Lukaku or Alexis Sanchez in the summer has not been kind to him. His former manager Jose Mourinho said on Sky Sports that Rashford can’t get better as a target man. Neville disagreed. ‘He’s still young,’ he said. ‘Players have to develop. United have to make a decision. They have to buy but not necessarily at the expense of Rashford. Of course, he needs help.’