Solskjaer's biggest change? It looks like Man Utd have a new baby-faced assassin

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After two years playing on the wing, Marcus Rashford looks a striker reborn under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Everyone knows the circumstances of Rashford’s fairytale debut. Four goals and an assist in his first two games and a winner in the Manchester derby later that season. But then Louis van Gaal left the club and was replaced by José Mourinho. Many expected Rashford to vanish, but he instead played plenty – just rarely in his preferred position of striker.

Now, Rashford can definitely play on the wing; but by putting him there the sheer amount of defending Mourinho asks his wide men to do sapped the Englishman of his focus in front of goal.

When Rashford had chances to shoot on goal, or when he was given a go up-front, he looked miles away from the dead-eyed clinical striker he was when he broke through in his first season. Suddenly there were people doubting his enormous quality, comparing him more with Danny Welbeck than Kylian Mbappé (whilst Rashford isn’t quite on Mbappé’s level he is much closer to the Frenchman than many suspect and absolutely miles better than Welbeck).

Now he’s back in the saddle under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s management. Three goals in four games under the Norwegian and he’s miraculously looking like the striker he used to be again. Someone you can trust to finish chances as well as leading the line with verve, pace and excitement. But was that look just a look, or did the numbers validate the sensation surrounding Rashford’s rebirth?

Since the start of last season under Mourinho, Marcus Rashford had played 4357 minutes. Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer he has played 326. So to compare metrics we’ll have to look at things per-90 minutes (p90).

Under Mourinho, Rashford scored 15 goals (0.31 p90) from 1.63 shots p90, but only 0.66 shots p90 were on target. He created 0.74 chances p90, 10 of which (0.21 p90) ended up being assists. He also attempted 3.04 dribbles p90, completing 1.16 of them for a success rate of 38%. And while he took an impressive 30.88 touches p90, only 3.16 of those were in the opponent’s area.

Now, under Solskjaer he had 0.83 goals p90, taking 4.97 shots p90 (2.76 p90 of which are on target). These are all superior to his time under Mourinho and show he is getting into scoring spots more.

Rashford has just 1 assist but is creating 1.66 chances p90, so he’s more creative even as he leads the line. He’s attempting 3.87 dribbles p90 but completing 2.21 for a much improved success rate of 57%. His efficiency with the ball has exploded, as has his involvement in the game: he’s averaging 47.88 touches p-90 and a whopping 8.01 of them are in the opponent’s area.

There is literally no area in which Rashford has not seen an astronomical improvement. Now, alright, the sample size is small and the opponents have been weak: but Rashford has played weak sides before under Mourinho, but has only twice been able to put together a run of four games with this level of production.

He bagged three in four at the tail-end of 2016/17, and he scored four in four back in September 2017, though that involved an EFL Cup brace against lower league Burton Albion. And in neither of those “runs” did he look as alive as he has done under Solskjaer.

How has the Norwegian gotten this improvement out of Rashford? Well, part of it is as simple as giving him minutes up-front. But it’s mostly the way Solskjaer, a former striker and legendary poacher, relates and speaks to and about Rashford.

Even before he became coach, Solskjaer met Rashford after a frustrating evening against Young Boys when he missed several chances, and said that he told the youngster: “‘don’t worry son, just relax a little bit.'” Rashford acknowledged he was snatching at chances. Solskjaer has since said: “when you’re young, you want to rush finishes off and it will be great to work with such a potentially top, top striker, just on his calmness in front of goal.”

That calmness was evident in Rashford’s goal against Newcastle, which he took so smoothly – controlling Alexis Sánchez’s pass, waiting for Martin Dubravka to start moving and then just calmly sliding the ball by him. It was, in many ways, vintage Solskjaer and exactly the kind of thing Rashford showed in his debut season before Mourinho knocked the daring out of him.

And whilst the Norwegian has acknowledged that Romelu Lukaku’s presence means that sometimes Rashford will “play on the right, sometimes on the left,” the idea is definitely for him to be developed as a striker.

“He gets kicked, and he gets tackled, he goes for headers, he wins, he challenges, he runs. That means he is going to be a top, top number nine, definitely,” Solskjaer said. And if anyone is going to know what it takes to be a top no. 9, especially at Manchester United, it’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Having two no. 9’s that both want to play could always develop into a selection headache, but Solskjaer has said: “you can play with two of them. No problem. […] you can play two through the middle. It gives me options.” So if there’s a headache, he’s got the paracetamol. The fact that he’s gotten Lukaku to score two in two off the bench speaks volumes.

Before, José Mourinho would constantly play Romelu Lukaku and then laugh off suggestions that Rashford could lead the line in the Belgian’s stead. It wasn’t even that Mourinho didn’t like Rashford, he very clearly did, but just not as a striker. And that meant he was never going to see the best of him, and it’s almost like Rashford sensed that and it effected him negatively.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, on the other hand, understands exactly what Marcus Rashford is, and as seen in the quotes above is unafraid to say it loud and clear. This clearly helps with Rashford’s confidence, which is crucial for a striker.

Whether Solskjaer is in charge for 6 months or 6 years, the baby-faced assassin will be looking to impart as much knowledge as possible into Marcus Rashford and allow him to grow into the lethal goalscoring striker he has always threatened to be. It’s early days yet, but so far it’s working perfectly.

The post Marcus Rashford: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s perfect striking sponge appeared first on Squawka News.



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