Marcus Rashford is getting ready to start the season with **Barcelona**after he went out on loan from Manchester United. He did not see eye-to-eye with Ruben Amorim, but both men can agree the Red Devils desperately need a vision, as the forward feels that the club needs clear "principles" again.
‘After six months, I learned to respect it’
**Erik ten Hag**and **Ruben Amorim**had worked with a more mature version of Rashford. The 27-year-old thinks that the first three managers from his time in the men's game made a mark on him the most.
*“Most influential I would say Louis Van Gaal. Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They're different. We've had so many different managers, so it’s impossible to for me to compare managers.”*
Of all of them, Mourinho was the man who exposed him to a different way of being as a footballer.
“But when you are more of a developing player, like at a young age, you learn stuff that no one has ever taught you that before. Up until Jose, I'd never had a manager that was so fixated on winning.”
Perhaps unfairly, the Portuguese has a reputation for preferring to play defensive football. But what is not in doubt is that he is a winner, and he has always placed that target at the forefront of his work.
*“Van Gaal was fixated on winning, but he wanted to play a beautiful style of football. Jose don't care. If you win, you win. You move on to the next game. In the beginning, it was confusing for me because all the way through my development at Manchester United, it was about playing a certain style.”*
That outlook on the game took time for the Englishman to accept as he grew out of his teenage years.
“In the beginning, I was angry because we’ve not played well and we’ve won. He doesn’t bring up the points missing from that last game because we’ve won, but when we lose, he brings up points. After six months, I learned to respect it and then I started to reap the rewards from him as a coach.”
‘The transition’s not started’
Rashford won the Carabao Cup in 2017 and 2023, the **FA Cup**in 2016 and 2024, and the Europa League in 2017, losing three more finals in that period and finishing second in the Premier League twice. None of those achievements have transformed the team because of the focus on the short term.
“We'll try to adapt and to sign players that fit a system. But it's reactionary. If your direction's always changing, you can't expect to be able to win the league. You might win some cup tournaments, but this is because you have got a good coach and good players and you have match winners in your team.”
The separation through his loans to Aston Villa and **Barcelona**has helped him to accept this reality.
“We've been way below what we where we deem United to be. If you take a step back, which I've been able to do in the last 6 months, what do you expect? People say we've been in transition for years.”
The success of **Liverpool**has also helped to bring perspective. The Reds remain competitive under Arne Slot and were at the top of the world with Jurgen Klopp, who has provided the most consistent challenge to the dominance of **Pep Guardiola**at Manchester City. But it was not always that way.
“To be in transition, you have to start the transition. The transition's not started. When Liverpool went through this, they got Klopp, they stuck with him. People only remember his final few years.”
He has also thought about the work that has happened at Barcelona. Financial mismanagement was sending the Blaugrana down a black hole, but front-foot football and La Masia were their saviour again: the Englishman does not want to be a hindrance to the development that is already underway.
“I deem success as growth. They found themselves in a tricky spot, but they stuck to what their roots.”
In that sense, he sees his time in Catalonia as more than just a personal project of reclamation. He hopes he can learn from and contribute to the culture that is empowering the newest crop of talent.
“It might be a slightly different brand of Barcelona but they have found a way for the young players to be one of the driving forces of a successful team. If I can bring like my own attributes and skill sets into a winning setup, I honestly think it's going to be a really positive year.”
‘You have to make a plan and stick to it’
The forward started to come through the ranks at **Man United**in 2005. He witnessed most of the final decade of Sir Alex Ferguson at the club for himself, and the impact of the Scot on the sporting culture.
“Show me a successful team that just adapts. When Fergie was in charge, not only the principles for the first team, the academy was set up so you could pick players from a whole generation and they all understand the principles of playing the Man United way. You see it with any team that's successful.”
Over the last ten years, he has felt that the institution has strayed from what once made it great.
“They have principles that any coach that comes in, any player that comes in has to align to those principles or be able to add to these principles. At times I feel United have just been hungry to win.”
Many have wanted to hold the Red Devils to the demands from their glory days. But without the right infrastructure or people in place to perform their tasks, the club has been pulled in different directions.
“To start a transition, you have to make a plan and stick to it. This is where I speak about like being realistic with like what your situation is. I feel we've had that many different managers and different ideas and different strategies in order to win. You end up in the middle, you end up in no man's land.”