Abhranil Roy
Marcus Rashford has been one of the few bright specks in what has been, otherwise a very frustrating and challenging season for Manchester United. The 18-year-old had to be included in the team after successive long-term injuries to Wayne Rooney and Will Keane, and the youngster has grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He has now scored 5 goals in 8 games, including 2 on his debut for the club which was also his European debut, 2 against the mighty Arsenal in his league debut and 1 against Manchester City on his Derby Debut. The academy graduate boasts of a CV which is hard to match at the moment but with club captain Rooney eyeing a return in early April, where will he go from here? Let’s analyse.
How can it work?
Louis van Gaal would be foolish if he would think of dropping Rashford — the Manchester-born lad had tremendous pace and loves to take on defenders, something which United could do with at the moment.What the Dutchman could do instead, is reassign Rooney to that false no. 10 role and continue using the youngster as a no. 9. The former Evertonian revels in that role and is usually much more effective than Juan Mata. Having scored 14 goals already this season and just 5 goals away from breaking Sir Bobby Charlton’s record haul of 249 goals for the club, Wayne would also get a lot of goalscoring opportunities in that role, aside from setting up goals and controlling the game’s tempo. It has long been acknowledged that the English captain’s best position is in that central attacking midfield role, where he can drop in to get the ball or can make those intelligent runs forward to stretch the defences. With Lingard and Martial or Depay on both sides, one can imagine the havoc the four can cause if they strike up a good understanding.
Fan verdict:
Marcus, Martial and Memphis are United’s Triple M, the ones who have the capability to lead the club to great glory. However, they will need an experienced mentor to guide them, and Rooney can be the one. The 30-year-old went through this same upbringing process as a teenager, and that resulted in United’s Holy Trinity of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez, who eventually won the Champions League in 2008. As a hardcore Red Devil, I sincerely hope history repeats itself this time around and resurrects the club now.
