- Plus, how Rashford’s arrival can reignite a declining part of Aston Villa’s attack
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How long ago if feels now that the sight of Marcus Rashford bursting forward with the ball at his feet would bring Manchester United supporters to the edge of their seats and strike fear into the hearts of the defenders trying to stop him.
How long ago it feels, too, that Rashford scored 30 goals just a season and a half ago and it looked as if he might be the man to fire United back to where they once reigned.
Rashford has not kicked a ball in a professional game since the middle of December when Ruben Amorim dragged him off before the hour mark in their Europa League game against Viktoria Plzen and cast him to the shadows.
‘I couldn’t get Marcus to see the way you’re supposed to play football and to train the way I see it,’ Amorim said earlier this week.
Thankfully, Villa boss Unai Emery believes he can get Rashford to see it the way he does and we may even see it for the first time against Tottenham in the FA Cup on Sunday.
If he can, Villa and Rashford could be exactly what each other need.
A DIRECT DECLINE
What once was the most devastating part of Rashford’s game has disappeared. Where he once took on his defender at every opportunity and so often left them in his dust, that exhilarating directness – or at least the confidence to do so – has now gone.
In Rashford’s scintillating 2022-23 campaign, which in him scoring 30 goals in all competitions, he was almost unstoppable with the ball at his feet.
No player registered as many shot-ending carries, where a player dribbles at least five metres with the ball before having an attempt at goal. Only Arsenal winger Gabriel Martinelli scored from more of them. Only Bukayo Saka tried to take on his opponent more often than Rashford. That directness set him apart.
Now, Rashford is taking on his opponents less frequently than ever before. And when he does decide to do so, he beats them even less often. His take-on success rate this season is 21 per cent, about on in every five – his lowest of any season of his career and half as often as he did in 2022-23.
It’s not just the belief or desire to beat his man either. He’s averaging the fewest number of shots a game than ever before and having the fewest touches in the box.
He’s never been more anonymous, but the hope is that now he’s found a team and a manager who can bring him to the fore once again.
VILLA’S WIDER ISSUE
In the absence of Ollie Watkins, Rashford offers Emery another option to play down the middle but if there’s one kind of player the Villa boss is lacking, it’s an explosive winger, especially down the left.
Emery often plays with one winger wide and the other, on the opposite flank, narrower with the full-backs providing the width.
Leon Bailey, the first-choice right winger, has stayed wide but has made nowhere near the impact he did last season where he scored 10 goals and set up another nine on Villa’s way to the top four. So far, he’s scored once with a couple of assists.
Emery has juggled his options down the left. Jacob Ramsey is the current first-choice, starting the last four league games, but he, too, has just a single goal and a pair of assists all season. John McGinn and Morgan Rogers shared the nine games before that.
McGinn is yet to score at all while Rogers has netted three of his league goals this season when starting on the left flank but is more effective playing through the middle.
Between them, Ramsey and Bailey have created just 27 chances between them so far. That’s fewer combined than Villa full-back Lucas Digne, who does most of the creative work on the overlap down the left.
It’s left Villa the lowest scorers in the top half of the table.
Rashford is expected to be asked to stay wide on the left and take on his full-back like the old days and get into the box to shoot. If Emery can unleash that Rashford, it’ll add a much-needed weapon to Villa’s armoury.
PACE STILL PACKS A PUNCH
In the same way that Rashford has lost his spark, so too have Villa lost their explosiveness to spring attacks on their opponents – an area where Rashford can help them thrive again.
Last season, Villa were devastating on the counter. Only three team made more fast breaks than Emery’s side and only three scored more goals from them than Villa’s seven.
This term, however, Villa are in the bottom half for fast breaks and have only scored from one of them, Rogers’ opener against Brighton in December. Everton and Leicester are the only sides not to have scored from one.
During Rashford’s 30-goal season, it was United who attacked with the most fast breaks and scored the most goals from them – and Rashford was the player who scored most of them for his side.
Rashford’s pace could help them reignite that counter-attacking threat.
The former United man is still in the top 10 fastest wingers in the Premier League this season and the quickest of all Villa’s front men. Only central midfielder Amadou Onana has clocked a faster top speed among Villa players.
Rashford’s top speed this season is 22mph, one mile an hour faster than McGinn and even quicker than Ramsey. At that speed, he’d reach the penalty area from the halfway line at least half a second quicker.
That doesn’t sound much but in the fine margins of the frenzied Premier League, even the smallest edge makes the biggest difference.
Perhaps that’s why Rashford chose to come in and train on his first day off at Villa. He knows that if he’s to revive his career, he needs to rekindle that old fire again.
