What Marcus told the media

Wednesday 08 March 2023 13:30

Marcus Rashford spoke to the media for the first time since Sunday's defeat to Liverpool, when he joined his manager Erik ten Hag at Manchester United's pre-match press conference at midday on Wednesday.

While the event was arranged to preview the club's UEFA Europa League tie against Real Betis, most of the questions put to Rashford were inevitably about the impact of the weekend's disappointment.

However, the first one was on a more positive theme - how the forward has improved this season after a difficult previous campaign...

Watch Ten Hag and Rashford’s press conference Video

Watch Ten Hag and Rashford’s press conference

View all of Erik ten Hag and Marcus Rashford’s impactful press conference that addressed a number of talking points…

Marcus, you’re a role model for so many young players. Going off the disappointments of last season, and now being a consistent top performer this season, can you just tell us what changes you made, what differences you made? Has it been anything to do with the new coaching set-up that’s come in under Erik ten Hag? And what are the changes that you might have made this season?
“I think probably the main thing is that [when] I came into the season I was 100 per cent fit. I had a good training camp in the summer with my team before the pre-season. And then when I met up for the pre-season, it’s obviously a change because we had a new manager, new staff, a new way of playing. And it was exciting. To me, I just wanted to give everything I could and I’ve just not looked back since then. I feel like we’ve come on a lot as a team and we’ve won big games in our style of play. It’s been a while since I could sit here and say that. Yes, we’ve beaten big teams in the past and we’ve won big games but we’ve always had to do it a different way to how we’d prefer to do it. This season we’ve gone out and tried our best to play our way of football and try to win games.”

Obviously, the weekend, you’re a local Manchester lad, it was a disappointment, I know that will cut deep. Are you confident in the rest of the squad [that we will] bounce back now after the disappointment at Liverpool, especially after having such a positive season so far?
“Yeah, 100 percent. I feel like, just touching on the Liverpool game, Liverpool versus United is a unique game. It doesn’t matter about form, it doesn’t matter about individuals’ form. It’s a special game of football that is just decided in the 90, 95 minutes that you’re on the pitch. Going in at half-time, it could have been a different game. I missed the chance from Luke’s pass at 0-0. That could have been 1-0. We had two or three other opportunities, and we probably should have gone into half-time leading. But we weren’t, we were down 1-0. We weren’t in a bad position. We felt that we could still go out there and create chances in the second half. But it's Liverpool, they can take the game away from you and that is what happened. Like the boss said, it’s about resetting now. That’s all we can do. There’s no point dwelling on what happened because we can’t change it. So we just press the reset button, go back to basics and give 100 per cent again to try and win the game on Thursday.”
Marcus, what do you say to people who say that as a team, in the second half you just gave up and stopped playing, stopped running? And also what did you say to each other in the dressing room immediately after the game?
“We didn’t give up, that’s nonsense. We were unorganised, yeah. Communication was bad, yeah. That’s why we conceded the goals. But it comes down to the fact I believe that everyone was trying to get back into the game that much, we came away from the team’s principles in and out of possession. I mentioned it after the game, I felt like the forwards were just trying to press as a forward unit, we weren’t connected with the midfield. And then the same with the midfield and the defence. We were trying to get a grip of the game when it was 2-0, when it was 3-0. We were talking but I don’t think we were really in agreement of what to do. Listen, it’s happened and the only thing we can do is learn from it and move on. I’m happy and grateful that we have another game so quickly because we have an opportunity to take a step forward from the last game and put it behind us.”

Rashford: We can't let loss define our season

 Article

Our leading scorer has issued a defiant message on social media following the defeat at Anfield.

Marcus, you said on social media that you can’t let Sunday define the season. How do you make sure that doesn’t happen and also, from a mental and psychological point of view, how do you feel – was that one of the lowest moments you’ve had playing for Manchester United, losing in that manner to your biggest rivals?
"Just losing against Liverpool is enough. It doesn’t matter the scoreline, when you lose a game against Liverpool, when you lose a game against any of your biggest rivals, it cuts deep. It’s not nice. It’s never a nice feeling. But for me, I always remember how many games we’ve won against them and they have the same feeling so it’s football. It’s why everyone loves the game so much. It’s obviously disappointing but like I said, we can’t dwell on it and look back. We just have to be thankful really and grateful that the games are coming thick and fast. Because of all the principles we’ve had since the beginning of the season, we’re in a position where we’re still fighting on all fronts and we still have a lot of games to play. When we have a game like we did against Liverpool, we want to play as soon as possible because we want to put it. Tomorrow hopefully we can do that."
Our Europa League goals this season Video

Our Europa League goals this season

United have scored 14 goals in eight Europa League matches this season, averaging 1.75 per game. Watch them all here...

Marcus, can I just ask for your thoughts on Bruno as someone to play alongside and as a captain?
“I love playing with Bruno, as you can imagine. I think for a forward like me, he’s the perfect player to play with. I think he’s been a good leader for us, even when he’s not been captain, which is always a good sign. He’s helped other players become better leaders. The reality of it is, we can’t be a well-organised team with just one leader being the captain. So he has done a lot for us in terms of bringing his leadership skills in and that was from the moment that he arrived. I don’t have anything negative to say about Bruno. Like the manager said: nobody is perfect. Sometimes you want to win so bad you end up doing things that are a little bit out of character. But listen, I 100 per cent support Bruno and I am behind him. As a team we have to support him because he is a fantastic player and like the boss said, we wouldn’t be in the position that we are in if he wasn’t playing games for us.”

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