The Striker has been urged to leave the club in order for regular game time
Marcus Rashford burst on to the scene for Manchester United back in 2016 as he marked his debut for the club by scoring two goals against Midtjylland in the second leg of the Europa League. He even scored two goals against Arsenal in his Premier League debut.
Since Jose Mourinho took over the charge of Red Devils in 2016, the 20 year old has featured in 105 of the club’s 121 competitive games, as both a starter and a substitute, more than any other player.
The England International found his first team opportunities to be somewhat restricted under the Portuguese, starting only 16 games in the Premier League. Since the arrival of Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal during the January transfer window, he has been mostly used as a substitute.
The player has featured in 3 of the 4 Premier League fixtures so far this season, starting in only 1 of them against Leicester City. He is yet to find the net or make an assist and was shown a direct red card against Burnley.
The Striker’s lack of starts at Old Trafford has been a hot topic in recent days and former Chelsea manager is considered to be a hindrance in his development by some, as he has dipped in and out of the starting XI.
Jamie Carragher among those has even suggested the Englishman needs to leave the club in order to reach his full potential.
Mourinho has slammed his critics in an astonishing rant centred around the playing time of Rashford ahead of Saturday’s clash against Watford.
“Speaking about Marcus, I think I can expect that Sunday I’m going to be highly criticised for not playing him tomorrow, because some of the boys are really obsessed with me and some of them have a problem with some compulsive lies,” he told a press conference as quoted by Goal.
“So I can expect that Sunday some of them will wake up in the morning and the first thing they think of is Jose Mourinho, so I can imagine on Sunday I am going to be criticised for not playing Marcus but it’s not my fault, he’s suspended, so probably you should remind them he is suspended and cannot play.
“So I’m going to do something, not for you, but the United fans, and I think I hold myself to the United fans and so for them I am going to spend two mins with you.”
He added: “In 2016-17, Marcus Rashford played 32 Premier League matches, 11 Europa League matches, including the final, three FA Cup matches, six League Cup matches, including the final, and the Community Shield.
“He had 53 appearances, but if you want to take to the minutes of play, he played 3,068, and if you want to divide that by 90-minute matches, he played 34.2 matches of 90-minute matches in 2016-17.
“In 2017-18, he played 35 Premier League matches, eight in the Champions League, five in the FA Cup, three League Cup matches and the European Super Cup final.
“He played a total of 52 matches with 2,676 mins, and if you divide that by 90, it gives you 29.7 matches, so with me, in two seasons, he had 105 appearances, 5,774 mins, 63.7 matches of 90 minutes, including five finals, so the people speaking about these minutes, I think they are a bit confused.”
“Marcus is not Dominic Solanke, not Ruben Loftus-Cheek, not Dominic Calvert-Lewin, he’s Marcus Rashford, a Manchester United player, with an incredible number of appearances and an incredible number of minutes played at the highest level in the best possible competitions,” he added.
“So Manchester United supporters, for you and just for you, to know what we are doing with Marcus, Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard, Scott McTominay, that’s what we are doing here.”
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