Marcus Rashford - signed on loan (injured - out for season?)

[eamonn]

While i want him to do well, the chatter around him overshadows the rest of the team. The Beeb spent well over five minutes talking about him after the game. Who he plays for comes secondary.

When we win the CL, l hope it's Ramsey, Mings or Meatball that gets the winner.

[edgysatsuma89]

Simon Stone on the Rashford situation. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/czx4lp78vp7o

For some reason I subjected myself to the comments to that article. I don't think I have come across a bigger sea of twats before.

[SaddVillan]

From The Athletic

MARCUS RASHFORD AT ASTON VILLA IS A PROCESS AND PERSEVERANCE IS PAYING OFF FOR UNAI EMERY

If 45 frustrating minutes underlined one of Aston Villa’s deepest problems this season, then it took only a couple of seconds to see a solution.

Those fleeting moments between the ball leaving Lucas Digne’s boot and arriving into the path of Marcus Rashford brought blessed relief for the on-loan striker and his team.

His first goal for the club was something of a scarcity when it arrived in the FA Cup quarter-final win over Preston North End, because it was a shot on target: one of only a couple from Villa at that stage, all of them taken by the England international.

This could have been a familiar tale for both the club and their high-profile February recruit, who was still waiting to score for them.

Only five clubs — all of whom reside in the Premier League’s bottom six — have had fewer shots on target than Villa this season, a perplexing and troublesome statistic for a team still targeting progress in Europe, the FA Cup and in the top flight.

For most of the first half against obdurate and well-drilled Championship opponents, it was clear to see how they have been so toothless. Despite Villa’s dominance and wealth of attacking options, the best they could manage against an injury-hit Preston, who were without several key men, including their first-choice goalkeeper, was Rashford’s first-half free kick, straight at stand-in Dai Cornell, and then a tame effort minutes before the deadlock was broken.

Movement, pace, individual quality; Villa have it in abundance but seemed curiously incapable of that final ball or shot. For a while, there was the whiff of a cup upset in the air as the stage seemed set for that profligacy to be punished by a breakaway Preston goal.

But just as Unai Emery might have been pondering a change, with Ollie Watkins on the bench, Rashford showed why he was worth persevering with on Sunday and worth recruiting during the winter despite doubts over whether he would ever return to his best.

His first Villa goal was dispatched instinctively: the striker’s muscle memory letting him readjust his run by just the right fraction to fire Digne’s pass first time into the bottom corner. It was all the more impressive because it required patience and focus from the 27-year-old, who didn’t lose his head after wasting that prior opportunity.

In that moment, Rashford should have done better than the tame effort saved by Cornell at close range when he had latched onto Morgan Rogers’ pass. The striker never really appeared in full control of the ball and Cornell did well to get off his line and smother it.

It might have been the last act of Rashford’s first start leading the line for Villa. If Emery had lost faith and made a change, the narrative around the No 9 would have been unchanged.

Instead, his final significant contribution was confidently dispatching the penalty that sent his team to Wembley, then 16 minutes later receiving a standing ovation from the travelling supporters behind the goal in Deepdale’s Bill Shankly Kop end.

The visitors can head into the semi-final against Crystal Palace hoping their shot-shy epidemic may be easing. They managed seven on target in the end, three of them decisively, albeit against a Championship side.

For his part, Rashford will hope those first goals in claret and blue, along with 81 minutes extra game time, create a fluency that keeps him in the team ahead of the fit-again Watkins.

As important as this brace might be, it is premature to claim that Rashford is back at his best. Only time and further opportunities to gel with Rogers, Marco Asensio and Villa’s other creative assets will determine that.

But on his 10th appearance for his loan club, it was important that goals arrived. That is, after all, why he is here.

And there was also evidence to suggest Rashford can be effective as a more conventional No 9, leading the line with so much talent around him, even if so often they are not decisive.

Setting aside the fact this was also against a team 14th in the Championship, Rashford showed decent movement when he occupied the central attacking area and also kept Preston’s defenders guessing by drifting into the outside channels.

At one stage, he was so keen to make an impact that he almost turned provider, taking a corner as the half neared its end. Ezri Konsa connected but headed over.

Those runs into the channel also let Rogers come inside dangerously and will have given Emery encouragement in Rashford’s ability to effect the game in different ways, although how his goal eventually arrived was more familiar. As the team broke forward, Rashford charged at pace into the extra space afforded by Preston in the second half.

“Today, he took one step forward,” Emery said when asked about Rashford after the game.

“He is playing in the plan we did with him. He has played more as a winger on the left side and played in some moments as a striker. We decided to start him as a striker to try to get from him his qualities and power and get him feeling confident.

“The first half, not completely, but in the second half scoring goals, he was feeling better. The process we have with him still has work to do and needs more adaptation together with his team-mates.”

Emery declined to offer any clarity over when he might push to make Rashford’s move permanent, insisting that the club’s fate next season — whether they will compete in European competition again or have added to the Villa Park trophy cabinet — remains in the balance.

But for Villa’s demanding manager, and for his No 9, one thing did become clearer on Sunday. Rashford has not lost his golden touch and when he clicks with the abundance of talent around him, it may provide the firepower Emery needs to fulfil those objectives.

[SaddVillan]

From The Guardian's regulations Monday round up column

FA CUP QUARTER FINALS AND MORE - TALKING POINTS FROM THE WEEKEND

2 RASHFORD SHOWS SIGNS OF BEST FORM

There have been starts. There have been assists, England caps, awkward questions to Jim Ratcliffe. Now, for the first time in four months, there are goals to gild Marcus Rashford’s comeback yarn. A tap-in and a dodgy penalty against Preston, yes, but also lots of energetic running, a swagger and a poise, the sharpness and acceleration that evokes Rashford at his best. Inevitably there will be talk of whether Manchester United will take him back (probably not) or whether Aston Villa can afford to take him on (also probably not). But as well as opening up his future, Rashford’s performances allow us to relitigate the recent past. Was he really as bad, as indolent, as toxic, as United and their gormless PR machine allowed us to believe? Or was he simply a struggling player thrown to the wolves by a failing regime desperate to cover up its own flaws?

[Somniloquism]

"Dodgy penalty"? I thought it looked soft until the replay. Or are they talking about the stuttering run-up?

[Dave]

From The Guardian's regulations Monday round up column

FA CUP QUARTER FINALS AND MORE - TALKING POINTS FROM THE WEEKEND

2 RASHFORD SHOWS SIGNS OF BEST FORM

There have been starts. There have been assists, England caps, awkward questions to Jim Ratcliffe. Now, for the first time in four months, there are goals to gild Marcus Rashford’s comeback yarn. A tap-in and a dodgy penalty against Preston, yes, but also lots of energetic running, a swagger and a poise, the sharpness and acceleration that evokes Rashford at his best. Inevitably there will be talk of whether Manchester United will take him back (probably not) or whether Aston Villa can afford to take him on (also probably not). But as well as opening up his future, Rashford’s performances allow us to relitigate the recent past. Was he really as bad, as indolent, as toxic, as United and their gormless PR machine allowed us to believe? Or was he simply a struggling player thrown to the wolves by a failing regime desperate to cover up its own flaws?

Yep, that all seems fair.

Although I'd suggest that anyone who allowed themselves to believe that he was "really as bad, as indolent, as toxic, as United and their gormless PR machine" suggested would have to be a nitwit of the highest order.

[Dave]

"Dodgy penalty"? I thought it looked soft until the replay. Or are they talking about the stuttering run-up?

The former. It's annoying, but that sort of run-up is within the rules and not going anywhere.

[Somniloquism]

I assumed the former but "dodgy"? Soft might have been a description but not sure how anyone can think a player stamping down on another players foot when missing the ball is "dodgy". "Dodgy" is Fernandez kicking his own foot and falling over getting a penalty.

[Dave]

I assumed the former but "dodgy"? Soft might have been a description but not sure how anyone can think a player stamping down on another players foot when missing the ball is "dodgy". "Dodgy" is Fernandez kicking his own foot and falling over getting a penalty.

I think it's just a bit of journalistic hyperbole. The first wasn't really what I'd call a "tap-in" either.

[Hookeysmith]

It is the danger of someone like him or any other of "their" lot - they are always the bigger story than anything else from a sycophantic media.

I am starting to feel a little sorry for him (i know considering i really did not want him here - for mainly the stuff above) but at no point has the same media started to question the charlatan that is Amorim.


Since here:

Training well
Looking a lot fitter
Plenty of assists
Fitting in with the team
Chasing back and clearly putting a lot of effort in.
Now scored a few
Back in the England team
Actually smiling and looking like he is enjoying football

Considering how many other (not good enough or considered trouble) players are thriving away from the cesspit - maybe it could be him?

[Dave]

Given that's the case with several players who left before Amorim arrived, I imagine it's more to do with the club than Amorim specifically.

[LeeB]

Given that's the case with several players who left before Amorim arrived, I imagine it's more to do with the club than Amorim specifically.

Amorim's Paul Lambert impersonation can't have helped though.

[Dave]

Given that's the case with several players who left before Amorim arrived, I imagine it's more to do with the club than Amorim specifically.

Amorim's Paul Lambert impersonation can't have helped though.

In Rashford's case specifically, sure.

The likes of McTominay, Elanga, Wan-Bissaka are much harder to blame Amorim for given they'd gone by the time he arrived. The only one apart from Rashford who Amorim ditched and is now thriving was Antony, and I think given how his time at Man Utd has played out, it's hard to say that one is Amorim's fault.

[jon collett]

Well the innuendo before he came (and from Ratcliffe afterwards) was he was misbehaving in Manchester and surrounded by bad friends.

But he’s been so humble and careful with us I do wonder now. We’ve certainly handled his media well. Yesterday was the first interview and only because it was a contractual obligation. He handled it well and didn’t create headlines about “them”. Given the circus around him I think FairPlay to him for the way he’s knuckled down and got back on track!

[Toronto Villa]

Given the number of articles that are now springing up daily about Rashford, most begrudgingly admiring his rebirth as a footballer, I cannot imagine what it must be like for him. This is the positive side of the equation. But for years the media reporting and publicity surrounding him was almost exclusively negative. And that’s before you get to reaction he got when he stepped out of his front door into the real world, let alone walking into work or onto a pitch. None of us face this incredible level of scrutiny. The pressure to be yourself against the backdrop of what others want you to be must be overwhelming at times.