Does Marcus Rashford fit at Aston Villa?

Sometimes you can find things in an alley, such as a former England international and once-devastating forward like Marcus Rashford. In a previous life, I got a recliner and a TV (not at the same time. What a day that would have been!). The recliner happily didn't contain a family of possums, and the TV didn't expose us to gamma rays, so we called it a win. Aston Villa are hoping for the same with the loan move for Rashford.

There is low risk for Villa and their manager Unai Emery. Rashford is really only being brought in to replace Jhon Duran. This means he's basically a support act for Ollie Watkins, a super-sub and spot-starter. Though Watkins just limped out of Villa's last game, so it's become a little more urgent. That said, there are some pretty big obstacles for Rashford at Villa Park.

How will Aston Villa use Marcus Rashford?

The first one is formation and style that Emery uses. While Villa's usual formation is listed as a 4-2-3-1, it usually morphs into a 4-2-2-2. Of late, Morgan Rogers has played the "No. 10" but usually links up with Watkins, with Jacob Ramsey and John McGinn tucking in behind that. From this heatmap, you can see that Ramsey doesn't really play as a winger per se.

When Rashford has fired on all cylinders, he's played as a wide left forward. That's worked best with a false-9 center forward, pulling centerbacks into midfield and leaving space for Rashford to run in behind. Ollie Watkins doesn't really do that, though Ramsey has still found ways to get into the box anyway.

As Villa play pretty narrow with their midfield, those middle 2 in the 4-2-2-2 are expected to link with the forward 2, and again, that's not really Rashford's game. Ramsey has a far superior pass completion percentage, xAG, and shot-creating actions. Rashford wants to get on the end of stuff, Ramsey does both.

This would lead one to believe that Rashford is probably more suited to play up top for Villa. Much like Rashford, Watkins does like to lean to the left as far as where he pops up. But he's rarely outside the width of the penalty area, and Rashford has struggled in the past when played only centrally. He doesn't make the right runs, he's not great at holding the ball up and can devolve into waiting for someone to send a through ball to him. His two superior seasons with United were constructed on slicing through on the counter on such passes.

Watkins is also just an easier target for his teammates to find in the box. Watkins takes 6.3 touches in the box per 90 minutes, with Rashford averaging somewhere around 5 for his career. Rashford prefers to carry the ball into the attacking third far more than Watkins, which just demonstrates his habit of starting deeper and wider than Villa play their central striker.

But it could be that Villa are looking at him as a change of pace, as Duran was. Someone they can bring on with 20 minutes to go with a lead and try and spring him into the spaces that teams trying to find an equalizer leave behind. Certainly, Villa aren't a possession-dominant team (they rank 11th in the Premier League in possession percentage) and playing on the counter is in their holster.

On the plus side for Rashford, Villa aren't the most furious pressing team in the league. Which is a boon for him, because his pressing at United could at times be described as aloof to non-existent. Then again, a lot of things recently at United have been aloof to non-existent to downright abhorrent. Rashford hasn't played for a manager with nearly as coherent of a plan as Emery has at Villa. All Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik Ten Hag specialized in was staring blankly from the touchline.

If Villa have signed Rashford to simply be a change of pace late in games, then it has a chance of working. If Rashford has any plans on resurrecting his career, he'll embrace being something of a "finisher." He may not fit in what Villa normally do, but there's a window to affect games in the later stages. Hell, a handful of goals as a sub got Duran the GDP of small nations from Saudi Arabia. Those kinds of headlines along with the pedigree that Rashford still carries from the past mean he doesn't have to do a ton to save his career.

But hey, some things never make it out of the alley, or end up in the back of a very packed pickup truck being hauled off to scrap.