We are definitely seeing a new doctor in the house. The player from last season has for the nonce, gone out the window and the one we saw in the 22/23 campaign looks to be making an unforeseen but absolutely necessary return.
Marcus Rashford appears to be one fresh and raring to go nowadays whereas in the last year, his footballing ability was lacking in more ways than one.
Not so long ago, ex-legend Rio Ferdinand spoke about how he's seeing a Marcus Rashford playing with a smile on his face, something that which he (nor anyone) didn't see over the past 12 months.
Rashford often looked very downcast and flat, almost as if he was tired of playing. His performances reflected that on the pitch as most would've been content with him leaving the club.
For a player of his quality, reputation and upbringing, that is a serious concern for the number 10.
Perhaps he took all of that to heart as in the 11 matches of this season, despite a somewhat slow start, he has begun to hit some form post the September international break.
Rashford has been amongst the goals and assists so far and is up there for contributing the most this season.
Afer 11 games last season, Rashford just the 1 goal and 4 assists. This season, he has 4 goals and 2 assists, an improvement of 3 goals.
Statman Dave says that should Rashy continue on this trajectory, it would be his second-best season for United. His first would remain the 22/23 campaign in which he got 30 goals and 11 assists.
Ferdinand talks about Rashford smiling a lot now and I agree with that. I also think that it is a mentality and attitude change from him this season.
Rashford took time off of social media for a period from the end of last season to the start of this. That could be another reason as to why he is playing with a better attitude and more joy. We know that these players see everything online and can affect them.
Erik ten Hag has only been using him in a way that I think has benefited Rashford. The manager isn't prone to taking him off now and sometimes leaves him on the bench from the start. That wasn't something we saw in the last two seasons as ten Hag had a habit of constantly playing Rashford both in his good year of 22/23 and poor one last year.
That rotation has probably helped the forward more than anything. Over the years, the 26-year-old has been overplayed to a point where he would pick up a few niggling injuries here and there which would keep him out for games at a time. This didn't help him with his rhythm as being in and out of the side isn't what a footballer wants.
He is now looking a lot more fresh and less fatigued allowing him to put in more and more good performances.
Rashford's game against Brentford on Saturday was the best I've seen from him in a while. He did everything required of a wide forward as he was up and down the pitch in attack and defence. That work rate in particular was something we don't see often enough from him.
Going down the line and putting in a cross, taking the defenders on, tracking back, covering for Dalot, spreading the ball and just mixing his game up gave him this perfect winger performance.
I also believe that he is more of a team player so far. We don't see him keep his head down and look for the shot too often and from Saturday's win, we see his range of passing from one end to the other.
There is something more to his game.
Maybe playing on the right-wing caused this? It's not a position we usually see him play and as we know, he does prefer the left but knowing that he can play like he did on the right and with Garnacho performing like he is on the left, I don't see why we can't try this pair more often.
Most of the time, it's Garnacho who has to move to the right with Rashford staying on the left. This change by ten Hag turned out to be correct.
The man from Wythenshawe also got the assist for the important equalizer to get us back in the game.
That type of display is exactly what I would like to see from all our wide forwards (and particularly Rashford) as they can be very inconsistent. I feel that Rashford's performance on Saturday went a little under the radar given how well Garnacho played, Hojlund's first league goal of the season and the drama with De Ligt.
For that display, I was very happy to award Rashy as my MOTM.
But his problem over the years has been that consistency. What we've seen from him this season is what we know he can produce but as he doesn't do it regularly enough, it frustrates us all to a point where selling him wouldn't be too unwelcome.
Whatever has caused this change in form though, long may it continue as we will definitely be needing it.
Background Images: Marcus Rashford (23/24) | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal | Marcus Rashford celebrates his goal against Southampton (24/25) | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)