Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has confessed he found it hard to shine in the system of former boss Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho, who spent two years at Old Trafford between 2016 and 2018, is well-known for his love of tactically rigid, defensive football, having recently turned Tottenham Hotspur into one of the most frustrating teams in the land before being sacked last month.
Under Mourinho, Rashford operated primarily as a left winger but he did spend plenty of time as a central striker. In 2016/17, he was restricted to just 11 goals in 53 appearances in all competitions, while 2017/18 brought a minor jump to 13 in 52.
Rashford was asked about Mourinho’s tactics by United great Rio Ferdinand on BT Sport‘s Between The Lines, and he admitted that the lack of free-flowing football was hard to take at times.
“I think that’s when we play our best football (when we can be flexible),” he said. “Under Jose, I would say everything was a bit ‘you play there, you play there, you play there’.
“And yeah, you can do a job, but it was difficult for me to play my best football.”
Wayne Rooney, who also appeared on the show, went on to reminisce about Rashford’s emergence, recalling a game against Chelsea in 2017 in which Mourinho’s tactics hung the young striker out to dry.
“I remember a Chelsea game, I was on the bench. Marcus kept me out the team!” Rooney began. “I remember he played a back six.
“I remember thinking ‘Jose’s put Marcus up top on his own. Unless he runs in behind, Chelsea and David Luiz, with all that experience…if he comes to feet, we’re in trouble.”
Rooney continued: “If I was struggling or a bit isolated in the game, whether that’s out wide or a striker, number ten position, I would occupy a different position, which would cause the opposition problems.
“We had good rotation, we had [Carlos] Tevez, Louis Saha, [Cristiano] Ronaldo, Park Ji-sung – great players. We interchanged positions a lot. We caused the teams problems as we had that freedom.”
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