Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford is a national hero in England, for all that he has accomplished off the pitch. He’s been bestowed the MBE honor, which stands for Member of the Order of the British Empire.
It’s awarded for an outstanding achievement or service to the community. While it takes greater significance than anything he does on the pitch, Rashford is still a football player first, and his job is to score goals. That is something the England international just isn’t doing right now, and he struggled yet again against Aston Villa last night.
That said, interim manager Ralf Rangnick backs the 24-year-old to finally breakout of his scoring drought, and soon. His last goal came in the blowout win over Tottenham Hotspur on the day before Halloween.
“He is trying hard,” Rangnick said of the center forward’s efforts to breakout of his slump.
“He is in training, he was doing really well in the last couple of days, that’s why he was quite rightly in the starting XI [against Villa].
“I think in the first half we found him quite often, we also tried to get him into the box, in the second-half that was not often the case and that’s why at the end of the game I decided to make two changes with Anthony Elanga and Jesse Lingard.”
As any scorer in any sport will tell you, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and the only way to get out of a funk is to keep taking shots. Just as things can snowball in a bad way, they can also gain traction and momentum in a positive way.
Scoring that first breakthrough goal could kick off a scoring spree for me.
“For strikers it’s important that they score goals on and off, that there are moments of success, of course it would be good for Marcus,” Rangnick added.
“If he could score a goal but as long as he is trying, as long as he is training well I don’t see much of a problem.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.