Advertisement

Share this article


Former Ireland manager Brian Kerr joined Stephen Doyle to discuss Manchester United and Marcus Rashford.

Marcus Rashford scored twice against Leicester City.

Manchester United ran out comfortable 3-0 winners thanks to Rashford's opening brace and a strong finish from Jadon Sancho off the bench. Rashford's second goal appeared to be offside but it was overturned by VAR in his favour.

The turnaround in Rashford's career is drastic. 12 months ago he was potentially leaving the club. Now he is arguably the team's most important player.

Rashford is fully healthy and fit. He's showing off the pace that made him such an impressive player in his youth and now he's hammering home finishes that goalkeepers can't stop. Brian Kerr explains what has changed for the English forward in recent times.

"There was a lot of very silly talk about Marcus Rashford," Kerr said.

"Not just him though, about an awful lot of players last year. It was because of the ramshackle way they were playing under Rangnick...it was a mess. But Rashford [in particular] seemed to suffer under the whole situation."

Erik ten Hag has made everyone at Manchester United better. But most importantly, he has removed the two anchors on the team. Harry Maguire no longer handicaps how they can play because of his lack of pace at the back.

And Cristiano Ronaldo is no longer the focal point of the attack to take opportunities from the rest of the team.

Kerr also wonders if Rashford's off-field work had become a distraction for his on-field play.

"He was doing fabulous work away from the game in terms of the social issues that he was helping out on in the last couple of seasons...Maybe that work and his commercial work he's obliged to do by the club took his focus off the game to a degree.

"Whatever was going wrong for him...he seems to have got his focus back totally under ten Hag. He seems to be in great condition."

Don't put too much pressure on young players like Evan Ferguson | Kevin Doyle

 

Football on Off The Ball brought to you by Sky. All the football you love in one place across Sky Sports, BT Sport & Premier Sports.


Share this article


Read more about

Erik Ten Hag Leicester Manchester United Marcus Rashford

You might like