Marcus Rashford’s form train continues to roll onwards at Barcelona, but a familiar Man Utd habit had the Spanish press reacting to his ‘unforgivable’ moment in the latest victory.
Barcelona won 3-1 against Elche in their latest La Liga game, with Marcus Rashford coming off the bench to score again.
Rashford came on at half-time after Raphinha pulled up with an injury, which could open up a starting role for the Man Utd loanee in the coming days.
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While his goal certainly helped his case, a familiar Man Utd habit was also on full display despite his scoring heroics.
Barcelona's English forward #14 Marcus Rashford (C) celebrates with Barcelona's Spanish midfielder #16 Fermin Lopez and Barcelona's Polish forward #09 Robert Lewandowski after scoring his team's third goal during the Spanish league football match between Elche CF and FC Barcelona at thge Martinez Valero stadium in Elche on January 31, 2026
Photo by JOSE JORDAN / AFP via Getty Images
Marcus Rashford’s mixed bag against Elche
Rashford has certainly enjoyed his time at Barcelona, flourishing in Hansi Flick’s hyper-attacking tactical setup en route to plenty of goals and assists.
It’s good news for United, as regardless of who the manager is, his career at Old Trafford looks done and dusted.
From the outside, it’s easy to look at Rashford’s stats and come to the conclusion that he’s playing brilliantly.
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While that is true to an extent, it must be noted that as a team, Barcelona create so many chances for their attackers and dominate games to such an extent that every attacker looks good.
Rashford was the beneficiary of the same against Elche, as he had three shots and one goal, courtesy of some remarkable work by Lamine Yamal.
He created a chance as well, but one goal was slightly underwhelming considering the quality of chances he was presented with.
He missed two big chances, one-on-ones against the goalkeeper, in a game where a clinical player could have helped himself to a hat-trick.
The Spanish press praised him for his goal, but called out this ‘unforgivable’ habit of missing clear-cut chances, something that Man Utd fans are all too familiar with.
Spanish press reacts to Marcus Rashford
Rashford has always been a player who is capable of the spectacular, but tends to miss the regular chances, which makes watching him an incredibly frustrating experience.
Now Ruben Amorim has been fired, do you want Marcus Rashford to have another chance at Man Utd?
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim giving instructions to Marcus Rashford.
Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
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Mundo Deportivo summed up that experience perfectly after the Elche game, calling him an “opportunist” for coming on to score and taking his chance, but having some “unforgivable” misses in the process.
They wrote, “He missed an unforgivable goal in a one-on-one with Peña. He made amends, scoring the third goal with a clinical finish into an empty net. Peña then denied him a fourth goal.”
Marca were absolutely ‘baffled’ at the number of chances missed, saying that the team squandered ‘incredible chances’, with Rashford among those guilty of the same.
AS described his performance as “Jekyll and Hyde”, as he showed he was capable of “brilliance” and “utter disaster” in the same game. His lack of pressing high up the pitch was also noted.
SPORT went another step further, saying Rashford is an example of a player who proves why “expected goals” as a metric should be discarded, considering he misses the easiest chances and scores the difficult ones all the time.
El Periodico aptly summed up the game as Barcelona’s “carnival shooting gallery”, as they created so many chances and shots that ultimately, even their wastefulness could not hurt them in a 3-1 win.
Rashford will hope to find his clinical edge when Barcelona take on Albacete in Copa del Rey in their next game on Feb 3.
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