Marcus Rashford claims Manchester United are stuck in ‘no man’s land’

Marcus Rashford has offered a withering assessment of Manchester United’s predicament, saying a lack of consistent playing principles since Sir Alex Ferguson stood down has left the club in “no man’s land”.

The forward, on loan for the season at Barcelona from United, believes that despite repeated talk of transition no transition has taken place and that the club will not be able to win the Premier League or achieve consistent success unless they make a plan and stick with it.

Rashford was sidelined by Ruben Amorim, the sixth permanent United manager since Ferguson went 12 years ago. The England international came through the academy while Ferguson was in charge.

“Show me a successful team that just adapts,” Rashford told the Rest is Football podcast. “When Fergie was in charge, not only the principles for the first team, the whole academy set-up so you could pick players from 15 years and over – that’s a full generation. And they’d all understand the principles of playing the Man United way, right?

“You see it with any team that’s been successful over a period of time: they have principles that any coach that comes in, any player that comes in, has to align to these principles or be able to add to these principles. Whereas at times I feel like United have just been … we’re hungry to win, so we’ll always try to adapt and to sign players that fit this system. But it’s reactionary.

“If your direction’s always changing, you can’t expect to be able to win the league. Yeah, you might win some cup tournaments, but it’s because you do have a good coach and you do have good players and you have match winners in your team – you’re not there by accident.

“This is what some people forget. So yeah, we’ve been way below where we deem United to be. But then if you take a step back, which I’ve been able to do, especially over the last six months – what do you expect? People say we’ve been in a transition for years. To be in a transition, you have to start the transition. So it’s like the actual transition’s not started yet.”

No United manager in the post-Ferguson era has been given three years. Rashford said the club could learn from Liverpool who, in 2020 under Jürgen Klopp, ended a 30-year wait for a top-flight title. Klopp joined in October 2015 and secured his first trophy in 2019.

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“When Liverpool went through this, they got Klopp, they stuck with him,” Rashford said. “They didn’t win in the beginning. People only remember his final few years when he was competing with [Manchester] City and winning the biggest trophies – he certainly didn’t win for three years.

“To start a transition, you have to make a plan and stick to it. So this is the thing that I feel – it’s not easy. Because if it’s not going well, the fans demand [change]. But this is where I speak about being realistic with what your situation is. I feel like we’ve had that many different managers and different ideas and different strategies in order to win … you end up in the middle of – you end up in no man’s land.”

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