Former Manchester United youth team coach Paul McGuinness has praised the efforts of young striker Marcus Rashford, but has urged the striker to add elements of Ruud van Nistelrooy to his game.
Need that something to be a goal-scorer
It was a great first full season for Rashford having broke through the previous year, with the youngster's 53 appearances and 11 goals a major contribution to United's three trophies.
Rashford began to see more goals in the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimović, which saw him brought into the middle from the wing, however he did only have a shot accuracy of 52 per-cent throughout the campaign.
Van Nistelrooy managed 150 goals in 219 appearances with United, and McGuinness stated that Rashford needs to follow in the footsteps of the deadly Dutchman to continue his success at Old Trafford.
“Marcus can score all sorts of goals," McGuinness stated to Manchester Evening News. "But to be a goal-scorer you need more of the Ruud van Nistelrooy type of goals."
“If it hit the goalkeeper - there was Ruud," the coach said about van Nistelrooy's playing style. "If it hit the bar, post, deflected - he was there."
“Marcus has got a bigger range," he added. "But he needs more of those.”
Playing in the Pirlo role
Rashford has displayed that he is more than flexible in a number of roles in José Mourinho's side, and McGuinness revealed that the youngster once wanted to play in the 'Pirlo role'.
The coach stated that in a youth tournament that Rashford would drop into the midfield, he praised Rashford for his ability to adapt to new positions but stated he encouraged his potential to be a striker.
"He could be a number 10, a winger, beat people, he used to drop off into midfield," the coach revealed,. "There was one tournament where he wanted to play like Pirlo."
"But we saw his potential to be a striker. We worked on his body shape, different runs," McGuinness concluded. "He’s a really, really intelligent lad in terms of football. He picked it up very quickly.”