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Ruben Amorim has challenged Marcus Rashford to return to the player of two seasons ago if he is to play a major role in regenerating the club’s fortunes.
The out-of-form United striker gave Amorim’s reign a perfect start, finishing off a radical move against Ipswich Town after just 81 seconds at Portman Road on Sunday.
Yet early promise once again gave way to a largely disappointing performance, which prompted his 68th-minute substitution by the new head coach, who replaced him with Rasmus Hojlund as United searched for a winner.
Amorim, who makes his Old Trafford debut as head coach against Norwegian champions-elect Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday, offered mitigation measures to Rashford, insisting the striker role central may not be best suited to his skills.
But after the velvet glove came the iron fist as the Portuguese suggested Rashford must first want to reconnect with the 2022-23 player, who has scored a career-high 30 goals, including 17 in the Premier League.
“He must be the first to really want it”
“I will try to help him and this position is not the best for him, especially in a match like this [against Ipswich] where he fought with two giants,” Amorim said. “So we will try to find the right solution for him as well as for the other players.
“But first and foremost he has to be Marcus, to try to get back to that moment, and then he will have the help of all the staff and all the fans because he is a Manchester United boy. But he has to be the first to really want it.
Successive managers have found Rashford a mercurial talent, with off-field distractions piling up in the throughput column. Eyebrows were raised again a fortnight ago, during a high-profile trip to New York, just days before Amorim arrived at Carrington.
There is no doubt about Rashford’s singing talent, but music has been on and off. Having made his debut in the final months of Louis van Gaal’s tenure, and aside from his 30-goal season in Erik ten Hag’s first year in charge, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got the best out of him, with two seasons completes of more than 20 goals. .
Mixed returns for Rashford
Since the second of them in 2020-21, Rashford’s returns have been decidedly mixed, with just five in 2021-22, 30 in 2022-23, then eight in Ten Hag’s second full season in 2023-24 .
This season, Rashford has only played 90 minutes three times in a dozen top-flight matches, scoring against Southampton and Ipswich. He also scored twice against Barnsley in the League Cup and once in Europe against Porto.
As Rashford continues to divide opinion among United fans, Amorim is already assured of a warm welcome for his debut at Old Trafford and he continued to indulge yesterday when asked about the apology ‘Ed Sheeran for unleashing a Sky Sports interview on the pitch last Sunday to say hello to Jamie Redknapp.
“It was nothing, it was simple to say hello to one of the commentators,” he said. “I was with Roy Keane, who is a real star, so it was nothing.”
On a more serious note, Amorim insisted on Sunday that victory was not assured against a team that can win a fourth Norwegian title in five years, but was crucial to the momentum of their project.
“I expect a very good team that runs a lot and that’s a very good thing for us because we need to improve that,” he said. “They have special players on the wings and they have this aura of winning matches.
“Everyone told me it would be a special moment [in the stadium]. But I’m just focusing on winning at Old Trafford because we need that momentum.
“I believe we can play in different systems”
Amorim has redoubled the importance of players adapting to his 3-4-3 system despite criticism, notably from Danny Murphy, of his ability to stick to it in the Premier League.
But he admitted he would be flexible enough to make subtle changes when needed. “We will do it, we have to do it and when I talk about our structure I believe we can play in different systems,” he said.
“Nowadays every team changes dynamics, so we will adapt to that. I think our structure, its power, is to change the formation every game.
Amorim said he would rotate his squad, with Lisandro Martinez in contention to return, likely for Jonny Evans on the left side of a defensive trio, after recovering from a back injury suffered on international duty.
