Marcus Rashford faces his most important moment with a shot at redemption
When Marcus Rashford was told that he wouldn’t be in the Euro 2024 squad the day before the announcement, there was no massive fury. There was only an attempt to look at the positives. The feeling around the Manchester United player’s entourage is that he needs a break.
There’s still one big game to come, of course, that could yet serve to make a point. Rashford may need a break, sure, but he will surely be personally motivated enough to show England and Gareth Southgate what they’ll be missing in Saturday’s FA Cup final against Manchester City. Many people might be expecting just one result in that showpiece, but it could yet come down to one man.
The feeling around United is that Rashford is still the player who can pop up with a world-class moment no matter his form, which isn’t necessarily true of those selected ahead of him for England. He did it in his very last match against City, with that brilliant strike from distance that ended up as one of the goals of the season.
There is also the motivation to salvage United’s season but that’s where this almost gets more complicated than trying to beat Pep Guardiola’s side. Rashford’s relationship with his boyhood club is at its lowest ebb of his whole career, although there’s an argument it’s mostly flatlined for some time. There’s a feeling in the market that United would consider the right offer for him, but that would have to be close to £100m. Nobody is offering that at the moment. We’re a long way from the days when Paris Saint-Germain were chasing him relentlessly. Rashford hasn’t quite been chasing defenders in the same way.
For some around United, though, they do not feel this is completely his fault. Erik ten Hag changed the 26-year-old’s position in the summer and that came after what had been a brilliant first campaign under the Dutch coach in 2022-23, and maybe the best of his career so far.
Rashford was already adjusting to this new role when Luke Shaw’s injury issues compounded everything. The player had to start from much deeper, which greatly constrained his game. The developments of the season have hardly helped, as questions have grown around those advising him. The Belfast incident only fed into a situation where it has looked like he hasn’t been anywhere close to optimum.
That’s why it might be more interesting if Shaw manages to start on Saturday, although there currently looks little chance of that. Either way, there is a belief that Southgate has based his decision on slightly distorted circumstances that shouldn’t discount the possibility that Rashford can still step up.
That is accentuated by how the international camp brings out more in Rashford. In what is almost an inversion of the previous 30 years, Southgate has ensured England have none of the ructions or volatility of the modern United. St George’s Park is a much calmer place, free of such politicking and distractions. That has allowed players like Rashford to just focus on the football. Southgate’s “wide raider” role has meanwhile better fitted him and it was finally what he got more of a taste for at United last season.
The great misfortune for Rashford, however, is that he happens to operate in the area of the team that has the biggest abundance of talent. As Southgate put it rather simply, others have performed better than him.
That isn’t exactly the case at United. Ten Hag badly needs a performance and more attackers beyond Alejandro Garnacho to step up. The team will be looking to him, all the more so for Rashford’s record against the champions.
That thundering strike in the March derby was his sixth against City. Pep Guardiola is known to have been conscious of his pace in the past, and never completely figured out how to deal with it when Rashford is on form.
That isn’t the case now, of course. He’s just endured maybe the worst season of his career. He does have a point to prove, however, and a stage.
In terms of the FA Cup final itself, if not Rashford’s international career, it could be a moment when a few different elements come together. There has never been a better moment to show what he can do.
