Manchester United waved goodbye to Marcus Rashford during the January transfer window as he signed for Aston Villa.
Any Manchester United academy star dreams of shining in the first team and Marcus Rashford made that a reality.
Rashford broke through under Louis van Gaal in 2016 and became a fixture of the United first team over the coming years.
Sadly, Rashford has gone through major ups and downs in recent times and Ruben Amorim decided that the time was right for him to go.
United loaned Rashford to Aston Villa in January with Unai Emery’s side holding an option to buy him this summer.
Rashford’s United career may truly be over but he impressed Bruno Fernandes before departing Old Trafford.
Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images
Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images
Bruno Fernandes on Marcus Rashford change
Bruno has been a shining beacon of brilliance for United in recent weeks and over the course of the season.
The United skipper scored two penalties against Real Sociedad last week and has now offered his thoughts on Rashford’s penalty-taking ability.
More United News
Speaking to MUTV, Bruno has been asked to pick one player from United’s history to step up and take aa penalty.
Bruno understandably picked Cristiano Ronaldo as his first choice, but then brought up Rashford too.
Bruno suggested that Rashford changed his run-up with penalties and was enjoying a great success rate as a result.
The Portuguese star noted that Rashford slowed down his run-up and waited longer for the goalkeeper to make a move before shooting.
That change seemingly puts Rashford alongside Ronaldo in Bruno’s mind when it comes to penalties and potential success from the spot.
“I think you had many in this club that were good penalty takers,” said Bruno.
“Obviously, as I said, Cristiano, in decisive moments is very cold and he’s someone that is very well prepared mentally to take penalties in decisive moments.
“But I could say that Marcus is also, since he changed his technique, because before I came to the club, I’d never seen Marcus taking the penalties he’s obviously taking now.
“Obviously, he changed the way he takes his penalties as he waits for the goalkeeper much longer and before I came to the club I saw that he was going with a much quicker run-up to the goalkeeper without, like, having a side and just shooting there.
“Since he changed, he has a very, very high rate of success so I think he’s also someone that you could put into the mix,” he added.
Bruno Fernandes penalty record
Since joining United from Sporting in 2020, Bruno has scored 36 penalties in the famous red shirt.
Five of those have come this season with two arriving in the game against Real Sociedad last week.
Bruno also scored penalties against Chelsea, Manchester City and Brighton and Hove Albion earlier this term.
We haven’t seen Bruno fail from the spot too many times; on just four occasions has Bruno squandered a penalty.
Newcastle United’s Karl Darlow saved a Bruno spot kick in 2020 before the United skipper smashed one over the bar against Aston Villa in 2021.
2022 saw Bruno hit the post with a penalty against Arsenal and Chelsea’s Robert Sanchez denied him from the spot in December 2023.
Bruno’s record is pretty exceptional and whilst he would back Rashford or Ronaldo, he would surely back himself too.