The mistake we have made with Rashford, is the same mistake we have consistently made with the whole team. We are so needy for homegrown/ english talent. This is also apparent in our lack of modern managers over the last almost 10 years.
The assumption is that a homegrown or young English player would love the club, give their all and provide a level of certainty and stability to the club. In reality, this has led to us keeping and overpaying talent that were never truly good enough to either be here or demand the type of salary, celebration or respect they recieved. From 2010 with the likes of Welbeck, Cleverley to the Jones, Smalling debacle all the way down to the likes of Rashford, Lingard and Mctominay. We have neglected filling in certain positions with the hope of development. The problem in our player development isn't our coaching, it's our expectations that have been warped. It is very unlikely that a lot of great players develop and become superstars from one specific academy. Most great teams already have good players in their squad, which usually means that the younger player coming through has to prove their ability to displace the older good player. Foden at City had to prove that he was better or as good as the likes of Sterling and Mahrez to get the opportunities that he has had. When Busquets came through at City, he had to prove he was as good as Yaya Toure to start for Barca. At United, we have done the opposite of that. Our coaches and even fans, have encouraged not signing needed talent in order to give some young players the chance to develop. This has led to us being dependent on the future development, loyalty and performances of those players. Something that is usually far less likely to happen than people imagine. It feels similar to what Arsenal were doing in the late 2000's, relying heavily on the development of young players who either left or never reached the required level of a top talent. Arsenal, like us, wasted seasons waiting on these players to develop, which most never did. But it was " the right way".
Under Fergie, outside of Scholes, Beckham, Giggs and Neville we did not have any other first team players consistently starting at United coming through or developed through the academy. Further to this, outside of the outstanding talents of Ronaldo and Rooney, one could make the argument that we did not develop a true youngster coming in from outside the club who would start for the club. The young players we did sign, were young and already renowned like Sancho.
Darren Fleetcher? There are many more that came through the academy and youth setup.
Every club places a heavy emphasis on nurturing their own talents. As in, every single top club does that.
Barcelona and Real Madrid above almost anyone develop their own youngsters despite the prevalent fantasy money signings. Chelsea have debuted 50 academy graduates since 2003. Manchester City has produced more Premier League players than any team in the past 20 years.
The current youth setup is absolutely stacked with future first team players. The previous regime saw to that. James Garner will be here next year. Mejbri is soon ready. Elanaga is already here. Etcetera.
What mistake did we do with Marcus Rashford exactly? Believe in him for delivering the goods?
July 1st 2019 Marcus Rashford signed a new contract with the club off the back of his breakout season at the age of 21. He scored 10 PL goals and 8 PL assists in 33 appearances at the age of 19 as well as 2 CL goals 1 assist. Those arent pretty good numbers, those are
exceptional numbers for a footballer who is this young. The conversation has been turned to freaks like Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe who are colossal outliers in term of footballing output, talking as if this is even remotely normal and to be expected from similar talents. 21 years olds are still barely adults, nowhere near done developing. The typical development curve of any athlete goes up to age 25. A players usual peak is between the ages of 25 and 29. There are many, many exceptions to this rule, but this is the average.
In 19/20, Rashford played 44 games and had 34 goal involvements (22G 12A) in what was also Anthony Martials best season. Its so far the only season he has truly earned the contract he was given. That is a full year where his development curve was pointing straight upwards after a fantastic breakout season.
20/211 Is really the "Season of Troubles". More gametime, but about the same offensive output as 19/20 spread over more competitions. He still produces 21G 15A on the season, completely respectable numbers, just a hair behind his 19/20 campaign. The notable difference is a reduction in PL goals (-6) and some notable changes to his individual overall performance that has been attributed to his shoulder.
21/22 is Rashfords only poor season at the club. Being sidelined after surgery to start the season (4W2D1L), only to return at the very start of the downfall of Oles tenure that started with the 4-2 Loss v Leicester.
In reality, he has not had the luxurry of being allowed to play himself into form on a team that "has everything together". Of course that does not excuse any individual problems, but some of it is surely atributed to teammates failing to playing him good as well. Its a bit of a deep valley that comes with a sprinkling of poor timing, and a club employee who finds himself in a lengthy form slump on top of it. All of that will genuinely make for someone who plays football with raised shoulders and no confidence to be seen.
"That is not the clubs problem" or "The club needs to be though and sell him"
Everyone knows there is a footballer there. We know that beause we have seen him bang in the goals and be a ever present offensive threat for 3 years. There is no reason to immediately give up on a players you know for a fact can play ball.
You write that Foden had to prove that he was better than others. Rashford did do that though. For 3 years. How much more time should a player be given to prove themselves before you go for it and believe in them?
I dont know if Rashford will ever take himself out of his slump. History indicates that he definitely will. A change of manager and a new start with continuity is going to be extremely beneficial for everyone at the club.
