Ruben Amorim became the next Man Utd manager to deploy Marcus Rashford as a centre-forward despite him being a left-winger/forward.
We know that he himself prefers the left but has the ability to 'do a job' as they say, up front should push come to shove.
But when looking at his abilities, there's nothing (other than finishing) that would suggest 'Rashy' is a striker. His hold up play is not good enough, he cannot link up the play as a striker would, he's not good in the air, Rashford is not the strongest, can't play with his back to goal and doesn't really bring team-mates into play.
His abilities suggest a player who prefers the ball into feet or occasionally in behind. He wants to get it and take on the defender rather than look to lay it off or flick it on and make a run. Rashford's speed and skill also makes him more suitable for a player out wide rather than one down the middle.
With his lack of a threat as a number 9, defenders don't really get too worried whenever they come up against him as the striker. Out wide though, different story.
So why is it that managers seem to want to take him away from his most potent position and put him into one where he is more a passenger than a threat? Could it be because managers feel the need to have to have him in the team despite his poor performances and so, put him in a position where he is least likely to affect the game?
Even then, that wouldn't make much sense because a striker is so important in terms of that hold up and link up play.
Post-match, Ruben Amorim had this to say regarding Rashford as the striker:
“The main thing is that they tried. We lost some balls, we played with Rashford up front and we lost some physicality, some ability to hold the ball. We had two training sessions and it’s such a big change", Amorim speaking to DAZN (via United In Focus) after the 1-1 draw with Ipswich.
Here's his stats in the two positions.
As Striker:
Games - 143
Goals - 55
Assists - 20
Striker Rate - 52%
As Left-winger:
Games - 217
Goals - 69
Assists - 36
Strike Rate - 48%
When looking at his output as a striker and his preferred left-wing, we can see that his numbers are very close but he just edges it when he starts up front. People will then think that perhaps he is better off up top.
However, it's just that his overall game lacks when playing as centre-forward compared to that of left-wing because of his attributes and because he is also a lot more involved in the game. Rashford gets more of the ball and has the chance to link up with his team-mates more than when he is up top. He can also take defenders on and cause problems from the left compared to down the middle.
For a long time, we've known that United's strikers are in graveyard shifts where they don't get many chances and indeed, hardly get any of the ball.
This is partly down to players like Rashford himself as he along with the likes of Garnacho, Antony and Bruno in particular over recent years, look for glory themselves rather than play the pass to the striker or any other team-mate for that matter.
In a way, Rashford becomes a victim of his own doing whenever he plays up top.
He is a player that needs to be involved in the game a lot to get the best out of him. When he is isolated or not getting much of the ball, you may as well play with 10 men because on top of this, Rashford isn't a hard working player so you don't even get that out of him.
Against Ipswich, Rashford had a total of 13 touches while he was on the field for 68 minutes. That was amongst the fewest in the game with only substitutes having fewer touches on the ball and even then, some of those who came on for either side were more involved in their cameo roles than MR10 was as a starter even if one of those 13 touches resulted in a goal.
That's simply not good enough from both Rashford and the team. It is the rest of the squad's responsibility to get the striker more involved but also that striker has to take it upon himself to put himself about if he is not in the game much.
Hojlund came on for Rashford in the 68th minute yet touched the ball 8 times in just over 20 minutes, 5 fewer than Rashford did in all but 70.
This isn't a problem specific to Rashford whenever he plays as striker because this is something faced by all centre-forwards at United over the last few years. It seems that we've become a side that uses the striker as some sort of decoy to get the rest of the team into attacking and goal scoring positions.
Last season was the first where the striker scored more goals than anyone as Rasmus Hojlund hit 16 in his debut season. The last time that happened was when Ronaldo came back as he scored 24 in 21/22.
Most of the time in recent years, we see the likes of Rashford and Bruno top the goal scoring charts. Our striker is at the top every other season rather than every season.
Most of the top teams will see the number 9 as their top goal scorer. For some reason, we seem to not know how to play with a centre-forward and get them amongst the goals. Amorim does like his teams to create for the striker. Viktor Gyokeres has scored 16 of Sporting's 62 goals this season. That is 26% of all their goals coming from just their number 9.
I feel like for this particular game, Amorim used Rashford up top instead of Hojlund or Zirkzee because he had trained with Rashford longer than the other two because they were on international duty while Rashford wasn't. Yet even still, I would've used a proper striker.
Fair play to Rashford for making the near post run and scoring but you would expect any decent striker to do the same. Other than that though, there should be no reason to pick Rashford as the striker again.
Amorim needs a proper centre-forward for his system as their overall game is so important to his 3-4-3. The way they press and start defending from the front is key and so are all those other attributes needed of a striker.
Rashford just isn't it as a number 9. I don't want to see him play there again.
Background Image: Marcus Rashford | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal