Marcus Rashford has arrived

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had a positive impact at Manchester United so far, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the form of Marcus Rashford.

The smile has barely left Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s face for weeks. Since Dec. 19, to be exact, when he was appointed caretaker manager at Manchester United. The Norwegian appears to be enjoying all aspects of the job, in stark contract to his predecessor, but one of the things he has surely enjoyed most is mentoring of Marcus Rashford.

A picture surfaced during United’s winter training camp in Dubai a couple weeks ago. It showed Solskjaer crouched down, revealing secrets from his personal striker’s cheat sheet to an engrossed trio of United forwards sat on the grass, all listening closely. Among that trio was Rashford.

There can be no doubt Rashford has responded to Solskjaer’s stewardship. The 21-year-old has scored in his last four Premier League appearances, lighting up games as United have revived their chances of finishing in the top four. Rashford is finally fulfilling the potential that had him billed as English soccer’s next big thing for so long.

However, is it possible that the most-hyped young, English player since Wayne Rooney could actually exceed expectations? Solskjaer is getting something out of Rashford that until his interim appointment we hadn’t been seen before. Now, it’s not so outlandish to suggest Rashford could become the face of Manchester United for years to come.

https://twitter.com/MarcusRashford/status/1082356194247929856

His recent performances have been about more than just goals. Rashford has been the driving force behind United’s dramatic upturn in form. Whether it’s out wide or through the middle, he’s influencing games in a way that was never the case under Jose Mourinho, or even Louis Van Gaal — just look at his dribble and cross for Anthony Martial in the 4-1 win over Bournemouth at the end of last year.

The sample size might be small, but if Rashford had extrapolated his recent form out over the entire season he may have been in line for a Player of the Year nomination. That’s the level he has been playing at of late, flourishing in the center forward role Mourinho was so reluctant to deploy him in.

Rashford’s time under Mourinho was something of a contradiction. No other outfield player played more minutes than the forward over the two-and-a-half seasons the Portuguese was in charge at Old Trafford. However, the majority of those minutes saw Rashford suppressed by the conservative demands of the manager.

Mourinho claimed, not long before he was sacked, that finishing and the art of scoring was something that could not be taught. He believed it was an innate quality — either you have it, or you don’t. “It’s not about work,” he stated, in typically snarling fashion. “It’s about natural qualities.”

Solskjaer, who would know, sees things rather differently. “I wasn’t born with it,” he said when posed with the same question. “I studied finishing, I studied goals, I studied movement. I worked on my mentality because that’s key.” The Norwegian went on to reveal that he still keeps a notepad full of advice from famed sports psychologist Bill Beswick from when he visited United.

On the other side of the city, much has been made of Pep Guardiola’s mentoring of certain Manchester City players. Take the rhetoric around Phil Foden and the widespread claim that working under Guardiola day-to-day he couldn’t be in a better place at this stage of his career. It’s the same with Solskjaer and Rashford.

Not so long ago, some claimed Rashford would be better off leaving Old Trafford, that he was wasting his potential by staying at United. Now, however, his talent is being harnessed, to the point where predictions over the 21-year-old’s future trajectory are being revised.

Along with the picture of Solskjaer passing on his wisdom to his players on the training ground, a certain statistic has bounced around social media. It compares Cristiano Ronaldo’s scoring stats at 21 to that of Rashford’s, with the Englishman notching five more Premier League goals than the five-time Ballon d’Or winner. That comparison would have looked outlandish just a few short weeks ago. Now, though, there may be something in it.