Rashford stats highlight his growing influence
There are few players who can claim to have enjoyed a more fruitful 2019/20 than Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford.
Before we dig a bit deeper into Rashford’s statistics from the season so far, it’s worth contextualising the youngster’s season from a tactical perspective to better understand the data. Impressively, Ole has tutored his young side to be able to play various systems - comfortably switching from a back-four to a three. The Norwegian’s most frequent formation this season, though, has been 4-2-3-1.
Rashford has generally been deployed as an inside-forward on the left flank, often cutting inside and looking for opportunities to shoot as either Brandon Williams or Luke Shaw overlap. Rashford has really established his role within the team with a greater clarity than ever before due to Solskjaer’s management, and, as a result, he has had - by almost every metric - the best season of his career to date.
In terms of specifics, he is having the best Premier League campaign of his career (1000+ minutes) in the following p90 (per 90 minutes) metrics: goals + assists (0.9), goals (0.7), shots (3.5), penalty-area shots (2), penalties won (0.19), xG (0.65) and xG+xA (expected goals plus expected assists) (0.79).
What this tells us really is that Marcus has really kicked on as a goalscorer and developed into a true inside-forward under Solskjaer. While his chances created and take-ons have decreased slightly, his shot volume and quality has improved significantly - which really paints a picture of his profile this season: a nominal left-winger who possesses the trickery and unpredictability to be effective from wide areas, yet often comes central to become a primary goal threat.
Rashford’s average of 134 minutes per league goal so far would project him scoring 20 in the league if - in theory - he was to play the rest of the season in full. That goes some way to contextualising how good the England international has been this season - his stock was already high and he was on track to double his previous best goal tally in the Premier League.
Ole's United have been devastating against the top teams in the league this season, picking up 17 points against the ‘big six’ - a tally only bettered by Liverpool’s 19, and Marcus's ability to find high-quality chances on the counter attack and generally to rise to the big occasions is a big contributing factor to that.
The Reds' leading marksman turned 22 early on in the 2019/20 season, and the campaign, so far, has seen him push on from being one of the most exciting 21-or-under prospects in the world to one of the most effective forwards on the planet.
He has played in various systems and been tasked with much more than simply finishing moves. Yet, he has done exactly that much more than most. It’s easy to forget just how young the forward is given his senior role in the squad, but it’s worth remembering that we are still really only seeing the very start of Rashford’s United career - which is absolutely terrifying.Statman Dave is a regular guest on MUTV offering detailed match analysis.
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