Rashford RUINING his career: New evidence Man Utd star is heading for obscurity

Robin Bairner

• 23 Feb 2024 10:37 GMT
• 3 min read

Manchester United attacker Marcus Rashford has endured a testing campaign and fresh evidence suggests that he will never reach the heights expected of him.

Rashford exploded at the start of 2023 in the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Man Utd, scoring nine times in nine Premier League matches to finish the campaign on 30 goals across all competitions.

What might have heralded the start of a new era in the forward’s career, though, has proven little more than a purple patch.

Rashford has netted only five times in 30 games this term, and while he briefly threatened a renaissance around the winter break, he has looked a shadow of himself.

Worse, the Man Utd No.10 has frequently been flagged by fans for having a poor attitude. Most recently, he was spotted barely mustering a jog as Erik ten Hag’s side clung on to a slender advantage against Luton in the closing stages.

PSG have reportedly targeted Rashford as a replacement for Kylian Mbappe, but that is a fanciful suggestion based on his recent form.

Rashford's embarrassing form

No other Manchester United player has fallen away so dramatically this season in terms of what they might achieve.

This is detailed by data analytics firm SciSports, which scores the ability of players based on hundreds of in-game data points. The result of this is a SciSkill and a SciSkill Potential, which predicts how good they may become.

In general, veteran players will see their ceiling drop as their capacity to improve late in their careers falls away.

This is seen at Man Utd, where Casemiro’s potential has dropped 8.1, Alex Telles, who is on loan at Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, has seen his ceiling dip by 7.6 and Raphael Varane’s capacity has gone down by 7.3.

All these players are over 30, so this type of depreciation is expected.

What is alarming, though, is that Rashford’s potential has fallen away quicker than any of these players. At 26, his ceiling has dropped 8.5 to 110.7.

In context, this is still a strong score, yet it is not the world-class level that he once appeared destined to achieve.

Remarkably, this is also the worst score in the Premier League of any player under the age of 30, highlighting just how precipitous his drop has been this season.

This is the clearest indication yet that Rashford threatens to ruin his career if he keeps going along his current path.