Marcus Rashford continues to find himself out of the England reckoning and his Manchester United career has stalled, unable to reproduce the stunning form he showcased during the 2022/23 season.
The 26-year-old is yet to score or assist in his opening three Premier League games of the new campaign and with both Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo impressing on the right flank, Rashford will be looking over his shoulder and concerned that he may lose his place in the starting lineup.
Erik ten Hag has continued to keep faith in Rashford, but it remains to be seen how long he can ignore the contrasting playing levels of his wingers, noted by both Gareth Southgate and Lee Carsley after Rashford’s continued omissions from the national team.
But while many of his United colleagues are away with their countries, Rashford has been hard at work and released a training video to showcase how determined he is to rescue his career at Old Trafford.
Having missed out on England’s 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland to kickstart their Nations League campaign, Rashford was putting in the effort on the training pitch with RH Elite Coaching in Manchester.
Rashford could be seen working on his free-kicks, shooting, dribbling and conditioning during a video which he posted to his 17 million Instagram followers captioned: “Raw material.”
United fans will be buoyed by the news that Rashford is spending his international break productively, at a time when the pressure continues to surround Old Trafford and head coach Ten Hag following back-to-back defeats to Brighton and Liverpool.
The Dutchman has already come to Rashford’s defence once this season. Having substituted him off just after an hour during the defeat to Fabian Hurzeler’s outfit on the south coast, BBC pundit Alan Shearer criticised the England man only to be rebuffed by Ten Hag.
“Everyone gets criticism from you guys, it doesn’t matter what we are doing, if we are winning or if we are losing,” he said during a press conference. “If I take a player off, the conclusion is I was not happy with him. But I was very happy with Rashy in pre-season, against Fulham and also against Brighton.
“I didn’t take him off because his performances or level were not right – no, we had to rotate because we have good players on the bench who bring new energy. There will be rotation. Then there is the conclusion the player is not performing. It can be sometimes but definitely it wasn’t in this case. In this case, it was stupid analysis from the pundit.”
Shearer explained that Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has returned to United as a first-team coach after scoring 95 goals in 150 games for the club, will have to “work his magic” to help Rashford and the Red Devils get firing again.
And Rashford is certainly putting in the effort behind the scenes to respond to Shearer’s comments.
