Marcus Rashford is ‘on a different planet’ to Arsenal rival Bukayo Saka and won’t fit into Ruben Amorim’s plans for Manchester United.
That warning comes from former Chelsea star and coach Jody Morris, who has criticised the United forward’s lack of pressing.
Amorim has been announced as United’s new head coach following the sacking of Erik ten Hag, but there are already concerns over whether he can implement his high-pressing philosophy.
Pressing has been a long-standing issue for the Red Devils, with Rashford coming under severe criticism for his seeming inability or unwillingness to do so.
Discussing the issue on Rio Ferdinand Presents, Morris said the 27-year-old’s efforts were incomparable to England teammate Saka and shared concern that not even Amorim could turn around his form.
‘You have to have players that are willing to turn and can press back toward their own goal. Arsenal are very good at that. Saka is excellent at that, [Gabriel] Martinelli is very good,’ he said.
‘If you compare Saka and Rashford for what they do for the team, Saka is on another planet. Rashford you don’t see cover the ground like Saka, he’s not great in front of his full-back like Saka is.
Rashford was negative compared to Bukayo Saka (Photo
‘Also Saka produces more going forward. They’re on different planets at the moment.
‘That’s one of the problems we all have watching Rashford. Such a super talent, he offers so much when he’s on it [but] he doesn’t produce it regularly enough.’
Rashford produced a career best 30 goals in Ten Hag’s first season but suffered a sharp decline in the next campaign with just eight goals.
He’s found the back of the net four times so far this season but only once in the Premier League, with United next in action on Thursday when they play PAOK in the Europa League.
Morris added: ‘I think there’s a lot of people questioning managers or coaches regarding Rashford. I think we’ve got to start looking at him. The talent that the kid’s had and he’s not even a kid anymore, he’s been there for so long.
‘Some of the body language you see on the pitch is poor. You can understand why managers have taken him out of games really quickly or not started him in games.
‘Cause if he isn’t producing the goals, the high level attacking play we know he’s capable of, there’s a lot of stuff he does which isn’t good enough for the team.
‘Going back to the pressing point, if you’ve got one chink further up the pitch the whole press can fall down.’