Paul Merson has urged Manchester United to use Marcus Rashford as a substitute against Arsenal after his recent impressive performances from the bench.
The former Arsenal star told his column at the DailyStar that the England international is the ‘perfect supersub’ after his 16-minute hat-trick in the Champions League in midweek..
‘Marcus Rashford is the perfect supersub and should start on the bench for Manchester United this weekend.
‘Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should use him more often like that because the stats show that’s where he can sometimes be most dangerous.
‘When he starts, he doesn’t really score bundles of goals and often finds it difficult. But he came on this week against Leipzig and scored a hat-trick in 16 minutes! If you look at when he scores his goals this season, they tell you a story.’
Merson goes on to name a number of times where the 23 year-old, who is celebrating his birthday today, scored late on in matches
‘He scored as a sub against Luton in the 88th minute in the EFL Cup. He scored in the second half against Brighton,’ he added.
‘He scored in the last minute against Newcastle. He scored with three minutes to go against Paris St-Germain and all his goals against Leipzig were at the end of the game. His goals are coming against tired defenders. Maybe United should experiment with that.
‘Arsenal is going to be a tight game. If it’s 0-0 after 60 minutes and Rashford comes on just when defenders are getting tired, he could have a field day.’
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the tie stay at 0-0 going into the hourmark, but claiming that the forward is only at his best against tired opposition is a bit of a stretch.
Arsenal haven’t been at their best in front of goal recently, despite controlling much of their matches, and the manager will hopefully have been working hard to rectify that.
Is Rashford better coming off the bench? Would it be silly to underestimate the 23 year-old?
Patrick
The simple answer to a daft question is that as RASHFORD is a regular starter for England, and also widely regarded as World class or at least near WC, the sensible thing would be for him to play the whole game.
As a GOONER therefore, I hope he does not play at all, or failing that ideal, that he only comes on as a asub. What sort of fool would deliberately make a sub of one of their best players, injury reasons aside!
By Merson’s logic, if he scores off the bench, he stays on the bench. Brilliant