It regarded like one step ahead and two steps again for when, three days after he scored twice in Barcelona’s 2-1 Champions League victory at Newcastle, he was late for a staff assembly and dropped.
Within the pile-on that adopted, Paul Scholes mentioned Rashford wouldn’t be “getting away with that for lengthy at Barcelona” and requested the query: “How are you going to sleep in as of late?” The inference was that he had been late for the sport.
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The reality was that Rashford arrived two minutes after the beginning of a staff assembly scheduled an hour earlier than a morning coaching session, forward of what was a night kick-off.
Barcelona staff captains requested for leniency from head coach Hansi Flick, arguing that Rashford was nonetheless unfamiliar with the roads across the coaching floor and that he had been having points with a card that ought to have allowed him entry to parking.
Nonetheless, the German coach has a rule that in case you are late for a gathering on match day, you don’t begin the sport, and he was not about to make an exception.
So simply as beforehand occurred to Jules Koundé and Raphinha beneath Flick, Rashford watched the primary half from the bench earlier than approaching at half-time. He received an help within the second 45 minutes, one in every of six this season. Added to the 5 targets he has scored in 12 video games performed, nobody has extra aim contributions going into Sunday’s El Clásico towards Actual Madrid.
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Up towards a revitalised Jude Bellingham and a rampant Kylian Mbappé, it is going to be the best take a look at up to now however he goes into it with relish, feeling like a participant who has missed being on the sharp finish of the most important fixtures.
Rashford is flourishing at Barcelona having been deemed surplus to necessities at Manchester United – Getty Photographs
“It’s not a protracted profession and the very first thing you’re going to overlook while you retire is such a match,” he advised the membership’s in-house media. In the identical interview he answered one query over his future on the membership: “I hope to be right here for a very long time.”
Barcelona are nonetheless shocked {that a} everlasting cope with Manchester United will solely value them £26m on the finish of the season. It represents a steal in accordance with these near the membership’s sporting director Deco, who believes the participant will likely be value a minimum of twice that a lot if he maintains his present degree.
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To this point, if there’s a criticism, it’s that he has not scored from his simpler possibilities. The targets have virtually all been particular. On Tuesday towards Olympicacos he drilled two simply contained in the publish, they had been his third and fourth in three Champions League video games. His second within the competitors was additionally spectacular, planted within the high nook from the sting of the realm at St James’ Park.
The one league aim thus far was direct from a free-kick cementing his standing because the staff’s set-piece specialist. Lionel Messi scored 50 free-kicks in a Barcelona shirt and when he left in 2021 it took three seasons earlier than anybody else managed it. Solely Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres have, however they’re now behind Rashford within the queue as nominal takers.
Flick has needed to present Rashford duty. He likes him at centre-forward the place Barcelona can not depend on the at present injured Poland worldwide Lewandowski, however he’s completely satisfied to begin him huge left the place he performs for England and he’ll most likely begin the Clásico.
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“He’s very fast, he combines together with his team-mates properly and with confidence, and he’s solely going to go from energy to energy as he understands them higher,” says Flick. “He’s already delivering 100 per cent of what I count on from him.”
There’s a feeling that Flick might be the Sir Alex Ferguson determine Rashford by no means had at United. A charismatic disciplinarian, the previous Bayern coach has made the participant – who he particularly requested to be signed in the summertime – his private venture.
Rashford flourished beneath Ole Gunnar Solskjaer however struggled in the course of the reigns of Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag – Getty Photographs/Oli Scarff
Flick has tutored Rashford on the number of actions required. He desires him urgent, and he desires him operating at defences. However he additionally desires him drifting infield when he begins huge to permit the full-back to overlap, or to drop deep often when he’s enjoying centrally to permit runners from midfield – the prolific Fermín López particularly – to fill the house.
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The directions come relentlessly however the calls for don’t change as a result of the one means is the Barça means. Neither the message nor the messenger alters, one thing that was not true beneath eight totally different coaches at Manchester United.
Rashford nonetheless watches each United match, however now it’s from a house tucked into the mountains overlooking the six kilometre-stretch of sandy seaside at coastal city Castelldefels.
“Individuals overlook that I spent 23 years of my life at Manchester United and generally you simply want a change,” he advised ESPN.
The dressing-room atmosphere has additionally felt like a change for the higher. United had at occasions been a melting pot of dissatisfaction. At Barcelona the boundless positivity of ridiculously precocious expertise abounds.
Rashford turned a bit-part participant at United after Ruben Amorim questioned his strategy to coaching – Getty Photographs/Justin Setterfield
There may be an 18-year-old at one finish of the pitch in Lamine Yamal and one other in Pau Cubarsí on the different finish. Together with the 22-year-olds Fermín and Pedri, who Rashford says has astonished him in coaching, they make up the backbone of this Barça staff and possibly of the Spain facet that will likely be one in every of England’s largest rivals at subsequent summer time’s World Cup.
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One of many first phrases Rashford picked up on the coaching floor was “chuche” which means candy or sweet. “Soy tu papa, chuche” interprets as “I’m your daddy, sweetie”, and is Yamal’s verbal calling card when he dribbles previous a defender.
Rashford advised El Periodico in an interview final month that whereas Yamal is mature past his years on the pitch, he’s a traditional 18-year-old off it, all the time laughing and having enjoyable within the dressing room. “It jogs my memory of once I was that age,” he mentioned.
Lamine Yamal’s training-ground taunts have served as casual Spanish classes for Rashford – Shutterstock/Quique Garca
Time within the concentration is going to do its greatest to crush that carefreeness. Yamal’s each transfer is now the stuff of headlines. He has been celebrating targets with a gesture to watching girlfriend Nicki Nicole, the 25-year-old Argentine rap artist, in current weeks and debate reveals speak of little else.
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Rashford is not in that harsh highlight. Approaching 28 on the finish of this month, he isn’t in Lamine’s teenage crew, neither is he a pure bedfellow for the extra mature Lewandowski, 37 or Wojciech Szczesny, 35. Rashford will get on notably properly with 26-year-old Koundé and 28-year-old Frenkie de Jong. Each converse wonderful English, which is barely hindering his progress in Spanish past selecting up Yamal’s training-ground slang.
However at Barça, greedy the Spanish language by no means makes or breaks a signing. Rashford simply wants to grasp his German supervisor’s near-perfect English. Flick, like Thomas Tuchel who tried to signal Rashford when he was at Paris St-Germain, is a agency believer.
Each males will preserve the religion if Rashford retains producing. “I simply have to be in the proper areas and I do know the ball will attain me,” Rashford mentioned this week. All of the sudden soccer looks like a easy recreation to him once more.
Rashford is now saying very publicly that he desires to remain at Barcelona past subsequent Might. That’s Barça’s plan as issues stand and an enormous Clásico efficiency will solely improve the need to make the deal everlasting.
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There may be additionally a World Cup on the finish of the season so every thing is likely to be falling into place. Not like Rashford’s arrival to that Getafe pre-match staff assembly, his timing appears impeccable.