Back in late November, shortly after watching Marouane Fellaini’s injury-time strike secure a 1-0 victory for Manchester United over unfancied Swiss champions Young Boys, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was wandering through the inner corridors of Old Trafford when he happened upon Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard entirely by chance.
In the preceding 90 minutes, Solskjaer had watched Rashford try six shots, score none and hit the target just once. The Norwegian, scorer of 126 goals during an 11-year playing career at Old Trafford, took his chance in customary fashion, telling the Reds’ no.10: “Don’t worry son, just relax a little bit.”
Twenty-five days later, Rashford required fractionally longer than three minutes to score the first goal of Solskjaer’s caretaker reign as United manager with a stunning free-kick at Cardiff City. The 21-year-old had scored four goals in 20 appearances to that point in the 2018/19 campaign; his effort in South Wales would be the first of six goals in his next eight starts under Solskjaer’s management.
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) 28 décembre 2018
As soon as he was named as Jose Mourinho’s interim replacement, Solskjaer was tipped to impart invaluable wisdom on United’s young attackers – Rashford in particular – and he told an early press conference just how much he was looking forward to the challenge.
“Yes, of course you’re excited by working with all this talent but then going into detail is what I can do best,” said the Norwegian. “That was my X-factor: scoring goals. So if I can help and guide him a little bit then great.
Bottom 📐 pic.twitter.com/R9ktYHybbu
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) 14 janvier 2019
“It’s all in the head. You know what to do – that’s key in everything – so then be able to do it. Watch videos of good finishes, bad finishes, discuss things and then go out and practice and be as good as you can possibly get. There’s always time for another practice session.”
According to Reds veteran Ashley Young, Solskjaer is preaching to the converted, with 21-year-old Rashford already relentless in his daily pursuit of improvement.
“He’s on the training pitch all the time and at times you have to drag him off, because he just wants to be out there,” said Young. “He wants to learn and that is a good thing to see in a youngster now. It’s fantastic to see, he’s got that hunger, that desire, he’s a winner. He wants to work each day and every day and he can only get better. [Solskjaer] is not a bad person to learn off, is he? I think Marcus is learning each day and obviously the manager will guide him in the way he does.”
“Seconds left.. Becks whipped in a perfect corner. Teddy flicked it on. The rest is history” 🗣 @ManUtd pic.twitter.com/JFGqwUHZLP
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) 7 janvier 2019
The collision between Solskjaer’s hunger to teach and Rashford’s appetite for learning has been a perfect fit. The Wythenshawe-born forward has always been a menace to opponents since bursting into prominence three years ago, but he had made almost half of his appearances in 2018/19 as a substitute prior to Solskjaer’s arrival. The manager’s determination to build United’s attack around Rashford and tailor it to his strengths has reaped spectacular dividends for all parties.
The youngster is focused, influential and, most notably, a far more relaxed presence in front of goal – just like his future manager advised him back in November.
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About the author:
Steve Bartram
Steve is Features Editor at Manchester United. Since joining the club in 2003, Steve has interviewed the great and good of United’s history, including iconic figures from yesteryear such as Sir Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, right up to modern legends like Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane and Wayne Rooney. During his career, Steve has also written and co-written several books on United, while contributing pieces to the Blizzard, the Football Association and various other media outlets.