Marcus Rashford: Barcelona star launches stinging criticism of Man Utd

Marcus Rashford has criticised how Manchester United have tried to return to the top table of European football since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure, explaining why they have ended up in ‘no man’s land’ and detailing how they could learn from rivals Liverpool.

Ruben Amorim sees Rashford as an unnecessary distraction at Man Utd, which is why the forward was frozen out last season. Rashford spent the second half of the campaign on loan at Aston Villa in a bid to get his career back on track.

While Rashford did not set the world alight at Villa, he performed better under Unai Emery and showed glimpses of his best form.

Villa decided against activating their £40million option to sign the England star permanently, which forced him to consider alternative moves earlier this summer.

Barcelona swooped for Rashford after missing out on other targets at left wing, mainly Athletic Club’s Nico Williams and Luis Diaz, who joined Bayern Munich from Liverpool.

So far, Rashford has registered one goal and two assists in four pre-season matches for the reigning Spanish champions.

He is still on Man Utd’s books, having joined Barca on loan with an option to buy worth €30m (£26m).

Rashford may have sped up the process of leaving Old Trafford permanently by slamming United for failing to stick with one project for long enough.

“Show me a successful team that just adapts,” Rashford said on The Rest is Football podcast. “When Fergie was in charge, not only the principles for the first team, the whole academy setup 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.”

Rashford thinks United should follow in the footsteps of Liverpool by giving a manager at least three years to build something special. That is what the Anfield club did with Jurgen Klopp, and Amorim will be hoping United are similarly patient this time around.

“When Liverpool went through this, they got Klopp, they stuck with him,” Rashford added. “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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Marcus Rashford comments could anger Man Utd

Rashford is speaking from the heart as he still loves United and wants them to get back to challenging for Premier League and Champions League glory.

However, the fact the 27-year-old is still technically a United player means his criticism is unlikely to go down well with the likes of Amorim and part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

United were hoping to sell Rashford this summer to help fund the signings of players such as Benjamin Sesko and Carlos Baleba.

While they did not manage to offload him permanently, they have trimmed down their wage bill as Barca are paying all of Rashford’s salary after he agreed a 25 per cent pay cut.

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