Rashford can be the leader the Reds need
FORWARD CAN BE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND UNITED REVIVAL
MARCUS Rashford was the man who stood up when children and families across the UK needed a voice.
Now, after watching United stutter at the start of this Premier League season, he is the on-field hero that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Old Trafford needs.
In the build-up to Rashford’s welcome return from injury, teammate Dean Henderson was among those to suggest the inadvertent break – prompted by summer shoulder surgery – will do the England starlet a power of good when it comes to longer-term goals.
There is more than enough merit in those claims.
Like it or loathe it, rotation has become the framework for modern football.
So it makes for even more eye-catching reading, then, that Rashford – who is yet to turn 24 – has already clocked up more than 300 games for United and England. That is serious mileage for a player of his age.
Cristiano Ronaldo and his sensational return to Old Trafford seems like a while ago now.
In the weeks that have passed, the dust has settled on that particular wave of optimism and the Reds are having to deal with a whole different ball game and conundrum.
Talks of titles and trophies have dispersed, for the time being. The shortterm target is for them to revive their early-season fortunes, to simply compete.
After a limp defeat to Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, things don’t get any easier for Solskjaer and co.
Indeed, over the next 23 days of what is an action-packed schedule, United have Atalanta (twice), Liverpool, Tottenham and City to come.
Five points behind Chelsea, as things stand, if that point-deficit stays the same – or somehow decreases by November 6 – it will very much be job done.
That is not defeatist, as such, but more a need for damage limitation combined with a hint of realism.
On his own, Rashford won’t revive United – as no single player can. He will, though, provide the catalyst for others around him to raise their own games and pull the team out of this mini-slump.
Ronaldo stands to benefit, naturally, while the England man’s tendency to cut inside will allow Luke Shaw to move forward and rekindle his own form via those trademark, overlapping runs.
Rashford is a special player and, most importantly, a special person who can be a driving force at United
Those players are not the only two examples, either.
Still to adjust to life in a United shirt – and the pressure that comes with that – £72.9m signing Jadon Sancho is able to come out of the firing line, while World Cup winner Paul Pogba can stay put and strive to solve the position (central midfield) that fans and other observers continue to suggest is the root of Solskjaer’s problems.
A heavy workload is something Rashford shouldn’t have to sustain long-term.
However, in these such circumstances and short-term needs, the 46-cap international has already proved he can handle the most intense responsibility – both on the pitch and within the political climate.
Rashford is a special player and, more importantly, a special person.
Not a leader in that old-school, conventional sense, he ultimately gets things done and won’t be found wanting. It can be his time to, like Ronaldo all those years ago, emerge as the driving force behind a United upturn, but others must stand up and support him, too.