Manchester United’s veteran midfielder and gap stop defender, Michael Carrick, has publicly praised the performances of the several youngsters who have been forced to play due to an ever growing injury crisis at the club. However, he singled out teenage goalscorer Marcus Rashford for excelling in his first two games.
Carrick applauds Rashford’s debut
Michael Carrick, who has only just returned from injury himself, was full of praise for the teenager who has four goals in two games, scoring twice on his full team debut against FC Midtjylland in the Europe League, followed by a double against Arsenal in the Premier League which sees United closing in on a top-four spot.
Carrick told MUTV, “I have seen some debuts but none quite like that,” and went on to state that “It is an unbelievable start for him”.
The praise didn’t end there for the youngster as Carrick continued to sing the praises of what appears to be a potential answer to Manchester United’s goal scoring issues. “There is going to be a lot of attention on him now, people are going to be looking at him because he has thrown himself straight into the spotlight – which is great to see.” But Carrick quickly assured MUTV that he believed Rashford could handle it stating that “he is a level-headed guy and I am sure he will deal with it well.”
Young strikers appear to thrive off debuts at Manchester United, it will be hard to forget Anthony Martial’s debut against Liverpool where he came off the bench to score a stunning goal to win the game, there was also Javier Hernandez’s goal against Chelsea in the 2010 FA Community Shield and of course, Wayne Rooney’s hat-trick against Fenerbahce in the Champions League.
Is Rashford honestly an answer to Manchester United’s prayers?
While it seems that fans and pundits alike are predicting big things for Marcus Rashford, with his hot fire start the pressure has mounted for him to continue scoring.
The real question is, is Rashford genuinely ready to make a long-term impact at Manchester or is he being rushed by pundits and fans to excel just because of a good opening few games.
What goes in favour of Rashford genuinely being able to make an impact for the remainder of the season, is that all of his goals have been first time finishes, showing a raw ability of finishing chances. With this already in his arsenal, he is already off to a good start. For example positioning can be taught a lot easier than finishing can at the higher levels, therefore he is already a large step of the way there.
He also seems to have a knack of being in the right place at the right time with three of his goals coming as rebounds, showing true instinct for the ball. The real question is how much game time will he get when Martial and Wayne Rooney regain fitness?
The reality is he will not, but on a plus side, he has pushed himself up the food chain in terms of getting game time during fixtures in which Louis van Gaal rotates the squad to preserve match fitness.
The future seems very bright for the 17-year-old, who celebrated his Arsenal brace by taking his chemistry exam.