Rashford's style highlights the type of centre forward Manchester United need
Marcus Rashford was enjoying the best season of his career before he suffered a back injury in January.
The 22-year-old scored 14 goals in 1,882 Premier League minutes, the highest tally of his career, as well as five goals across 482 minutes in all other competitions.
What was crucial to his success, however, was the acceptance and relishing of a wide-left role. Rashford initially emerged as a centre-forward.
In reality, he has always played the striking role with a slighting towards the flank, drifting away from central areas of the pitch to receive the ball in wider areas, where he can then turn and drive at defenders with more space to work in.
But this season, more than ever, he settled into an established position: an advanced left-wing role that pushes him onto the shoulder of the opposing backline but starts from wider, providing him with opportunities to dribble at - and invariably by - an isolated defender and space to burst into with his runs off the ball.
Because of his technical skill, spatial awareness, intelligence of movement, and frightening speed, these are the positions in which he is at his most dangerous.
Of his 22 Premier League starts, six have come as a centre-forward. He scored only two goals in those matches and United won just one. Conversely, Rashford scored 12 of his 14 goals as a left-winger.
This week, the forward spoke about the advantages of playing off the left flank, contrasting it to the different responsibilities of playing through the middle.
“When you are on the left, you can create a lot more things on your own, giving that little bit more to the team,” Rashford explained to the UTD Podcast. “Whereas when you are playing up front, sometimes you are isolated and need someone in midfield who can find passes for 90 minutes of a game, so you can disappear in games sometimes as a number nine.
“When I transitioned to a number nine when I was younger, that's the bit that I struggled with as I was always someone who wanted to express myself on the ball.
"When I started playing number nine, I realised that you don't see the ball as often as you do in other positions, but when you do see the ball, it's an opportunity to score goals.
“That's what I loved about being a number nine and that's what I still love about it. But right now I'm enjoying having the freedom to mix between the two - and I think it suits us well at the moment as Anthony (Martial) likes to drift to the left and drop deep as well.”
Rashford's positional fluidity and flexibility is a crucial tenet to his game. But it also illustrates the type of centre-forward that United must pursue in the transfer window.
Rashford notes the tendency to become isolated in the centre-forward position. It is why both he and Anthony Martial drift away from the centre-backs, dropping deep into midfield to receive the ball on the half-turn or moving wide and positioning themselves up against a full-back, rather than having to deal with the bruising defenders in compact spaces and relying on the midfield to feed difficult passes into your feet or the central channels.
While these movements can cause confusion and allow the pair to receive possession more frequently, they can leave the midfield with limited passing options.
Having a centre-forward who is comfortable with the ball at their feet, receiving possession with their back to goal, holding off a defender, before laying it off to a teammate is vital in the construction of attacks.
Whether Rashford is capable of this is debatable. He certainly has the touch and control to play that role, and having bulked up, he can handle the physicality of it, too.
However, even if he has the ability to play as a back-to-goal centre-forward, as he rightly illustrates, he is more dangerous coming off the left. Why remove him from what he does best?
In United's search for a centre-forward, then, it is vital that they find a player who relishes receiving the ball to feet, who can act as a focal point of the attack, before then feeding the vibrant and ferocious movement of the likes of Rashford and Martial.
Who that player is remains to be seen, but Rashford's evolution into a prolific winger and positional flexibility and roaming throughout his career are the perfect case study: United need a target man.
The 22-year-old scored 14 goals in 1,882 Premier League minutes, the highest tally of his career, as well as five goals across 482 minutes in all other competitions.
What was crucial to his success, however, was the acceptance and relishing of a wide-left role. Rashford initially emerged as a centre-forward.
In reality, he has always played the striking role with a slighting towards the flank, drifting away from central areas of the pitch to receive the ball in wider areas, where he can then turn and drive at defenders with more space to work in.
But this season, more than ever, he settled into an established position: an advanced left-wing role that pushes him onto the shoulder of the opposing backline but starts from wider, providing him with opportunities to dribble at - and invariably by - an isolated defender and space to burst into with his runs off the ball.
Because of his technical skill, spatial awareness, intelligence of movement, and frightening speed, these are the positions in which he is at his most dangerous.
Of his 22 Premier League starts, six have come as a centre-forward. He scored only two goals in those matches and United won just one. Conversely, Rashford scored 12 of his 14 goals as a left-winger.
This week, the forward spoke about the advantages of playing off the left flank, contrasting it to the different responsibilities of playing through the middle.
“When you are on the left, you can create a lot more things on your own, giving that little bit more to the team,” Rashford explained to the UTD Podcast. “Whereas when you are playing up front, sometimes you are isolated and need someone in midfield who can find passes for 90 minutes of a game, so you can disappear in games sometimes as a number nine.
“When I transitioned to a number nine when I was younger, that's the bit that I struggled with as I was always someone who wanted to express myself on the ball.
"When I started playing number nine, I realised that you don't see the ball as often as you do in other positions, but when you do see the ball, it's an opportunity to score goals.
“That's what I loved about being a number nine and that's what I still love about it. But right now I'm enjoying having the freedom to mix between the two - and I think it suits us well at the moment as Anthony (Martial) likes to drift to the left and drop deep as well.”
Rashford's positional fluidity and flexibility is a crucial tenet to his game. But it also illustrates the type of centre-forward that United must pursue in the transfer window.
Rashford notes the tendency to become isolated in the centre-forward position. It is why both he and Anthony Martial drift away from the centre-backs, dropping deep into midfield to receive the ball on the half-turn or moving wide and positioning themselves up against a full-back, rather than having to deal with the bruising defenders in compact spaces and relying on the midfield to feed difficult passes into your feet or the central channels.
While these movements can cause confusion and allow the pair to receive possession more frequently, they can leave the midfield with limited passing options.
Having a centre-forward who is comfortable with the ball at their feet, receiving possession with their back to goal, holding off a defender, before laying it off to a teammate is vital in the construction of attacks.
Whether Rashford is capable of this is debatable. He certainly has the touch and control to play that role, and having bulked up, he can handle the physicality of it, too.
However, even if he has the ability to play as a back-to-goal centre-forward, as he rightly illustrates, he is more dangerous coming off the left. Why remove him from what he does best?
In United's search for a centre-forward, then, it is vital that they find a player who relishes receiving the ball to feet, who can act as a focal point of the attack, before then feeding the vibrant and ferocious movement of the likes of Rashford and Martial.
Who that player is remains to be seen, but Rashford's evolution into a prolific winger and positional flexibility and roaming throughout his career are the perfect case study: United need a target man.
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