Revitalized The attacker for Manchester United has set a record for goals in a season and wants to set another one at Wembley.
After a lost season that the 25-year-old Manchester United forward says: "I can't get back," Marcus Rashford is reflecting on how he became the deadly leader of the team's attack.
The starkest way of comprehending the turnaround: in 2021-22 Rashford scored five goals in 32 appearances; this season he has 24 in 36. Sunday’s double in the 3-0 victory against Leicester at Old Trafford took him to a career-high count for a campaign and he is the force Newcastle is desperate to stop in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
Rashford, however, seemed to be leaving during the offseason. After Ole Gunnar Solskjr was fired in November of the previous year, Rashford scored five goals by March, and interim manager Ralf Rangnick told him he could leave if he desired.
There must be context. If you go back about a year, the Wythenshawe child had been playing with a shoulder problem that would eventually require surgery in the summer of 2021. Rashford returned to Solskjr's listing side and a disgruntled locker room in October because there was no preseason. Rashford received jeers from United supporters for not picking up a loose ball during an FA Cup match. following January, public despair at his confidence disintegrating to such an extent that he was cast as a certainty to miss when through on goal or even fail to control a regulation pass.
Not anymore. Now Rashford is adored and expected to bury every chance. He offers an honest explanation of why. “I don’t think anyone – apart from the people at the club – knows how long I was dealing with those [injury] issues,” Rashford says. “It wasn’t just one season; it was a period of time where every day was tough, and you have to sacrifice [yourself]. I’ve always been one to be out on the pitch as much as I can – that’s where I get the happiness.”
Before the shoulder issue was a back fracture sustained in January 2020 that ruled him out of the next three months of a campaign paused in March by Covid, before he returned in June when football restarted. The next term – 2020 21 – appeared a triumph: Rashford scored 23 goals as United finished second under Solskjær but all was not well – after the Euros came to the shoulder operation.
“If I’m out injured, I’m not happy,” says Rashford, who hopes to be cleared to play at Wembley after being forced off against Barcelona on Thursday. “At times, you have to pull yourself out [of the side] and if you don’t, then you have to get people around to pull yourself out and that’s what happened with the shoulder situation. It was the right time to get it fixed. I recovered quite quickly from that.”
Now comes the admission about last season: “Then the season happened; I can’t get it back, but one thing I can do is learn from it and try and do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Due to two variables, this goal is progressing well thus far. United now has their best opportunity of being genuine title challengers since Sir Alex Ferguson thanks to the hiring of Erik ten Hag, a coach who can help Rashford mend his fractured mentality while improving his play. Rashford's concentration also played a role; he put aside the idea of leaving his childhood club, Manchester United (Paris Saint-Germain had been vocal suitors), and spent the off-season in Portland, Oregon, working on his physique and fitness at Nike's headquarters.