Marcus Rashford sees his future as a No 9. Is that the best use of his skill set?

New York Times

a day ago

Marcus Rashford probably needs a change of scenery to revitalise his career, but might a permanent change in position prove just as effective?
Deployed off the left wing for large parts of his time at Manchester United, where his searing pace and excellent ball-carrying come to the fore, Rashford now believes he's ready to lead the line.
Advertisement
'For me, playing as a No 9 is becoming more comfortable, more natural,' he told Spanish YouTube channel xBuyer.
His standing at United looks increasingly shaky, with manager Ruben Amorim questioning his attitude and sending him on loan to Aston Villa for the second half of last season. But a fit and firing Rashford as a central striker remains a tantalising prospect, one that might even give Amorim pause for thought.
It's easy to forget that United got off to a fast start under Amorim, with Rashford — starting up top — firing them ahead after two minutes against Ipswich Town in late November 2024. Displaying keen centre-forward instincts, he made a darting run to the edge of the six yard, getting to Amad's cross just before Ipswich keeper Arijanet Muric and poking home.
It's also worth pointing out that Rashford has spent a decent chunk of his United career playing as a striker, at least on paper anyway. Since 2018-19, over a third of his league minutes have come as a centre-forward, as shown in the positional map below.
But despite his early contribution at Portman Road, the match finished 1-1 and Amorim was unconvinced by his suitability as a No 9.
'That position is not the best for him,' he said, adding that Rashford's relative lack of physicality made it feel like he was 'fighting with two giants.'
Amorim isn't alone in this view. Across his career, managers have almost unanimously preferred Rashford cutting in from the left, a sentiment echoed by Unai Emery during his productive loan at Aston Villa. 'Preferably, his best position is on the left, running from there,' the Spaniard said.
The numbers bear this out. His goalscoring rate is noticeably stronger from the left: he averages around four goals every 10 league games in that position, compared to closer to three when leading the line.
This obvious preference for one side of the pitch is something he'll need to overcome if he wants to evolve into a complete striker, one who can hurt teams across the width of the pitch.
Even when deployed through the middle, he struggles to shake his natural instinct to drift wide. The graphic below shows his share of touches when playing as a centre-forward, compared to the Premier League average for players in that role. While natural strikers take around nine per cent of their touches in the central zone directly in front of goal, Rashford's figure is almost half that.
It's not just about getting into those more right-sided areas; it's about delivering impact once he's there, and Rashford struggles to generate high-quality chances when attacking the right channel.
His shot maps across left, central, and right-sided roles show a clear decline in chance quality the further he moves across the pitch. As a right-sided attacker, his xG per shot falls to just 0.08, compared to 0.14 on the left.
The difference reflects Rashford's greater ability to create separation on the left. His sharpness when cutting inside onto his right foot gives him the space to get shots away cleanly. He lacks that same advantage on the right, where 40 per cent of his shots are blocked, almost double the rate from the left third (22 per cent).
Advertisement
Rashford's goalscoring variety clearly still needs work, but the fact he's shown he can deliver top-end numbers, albeit only in isolated seasons, bodes well for his potential transition to a full-time centre-forward role.
As recently as February 2023, then-United manager Erik ten Hag described him as one of the best strikers in Europe, during a campaign in which he scored 30 goals across all competitions. He played 1,258 league minutes as a striker that season — his highest total in the last six years.
Rashford's increased time playing centrally helped boost his goal tally that season, but he also benefited from a more consistent and creative supply line behind him. Former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer once spoke of United's need for a striker who would 'break his nose to score', someone with poacher's instincts and the movement to find high-quality chances close to goal.
That's not naturally Rashford's game. His SkillCorner run profile shows that just 15 per cent of his runs as a centre-forward are made to receive crosses — well below the Premier League average of 24 per cent for that position.
But even for centre-forwards who consistently attack crosses, United haven't regularly created the kind of chances that reward those runs. The volume of back-post chances has generally been low, limiting the service for central forwards.
That changed in 2022-23. Rashford scored four of his nine career league goals from inside the six-yard box during that season alone, a spike that coincided with United producing their highest number of back-post chances (41) since 2018-19.
But since that stellar season, it's not just back-post chances that Rashford has struggled to find. The arrival of Rasmus Hojlund has pushed him further out to the left again, and the graphic below showing near-post runs per 90, highlights just how the Danish striker has dominated United's near-post movements.
Rashford himself explained to The Overlap just how difficult it is to arrive at the right time from a wider position: 'When you're on the left wing, if you're late, sometimes making the back post is a 20-30 yard sprint. If the striker pulls to the back and you've got to go across the front, then it's another 15 yards.'
Advertisement
Tactical decisions and a lack of team-wide creativity have limited Rashford's opportunities to showcase his centre-forward credentials at United, even if it's still unclear whether he truly fits the role. But there were encouraging signs in his loan spell at Aston Villa.
After a string of promising performances as a substitute, Unai Emery handed Rashford a start up front against Preston North End in the FA Cup, and was immediately rewarded, with Rashford scoring twice in a 3-0 win. Emery was quickly converted from his previous stance, saying they would now use 'him as a striker and try to compete with (Ollie) Watkins.' Rashford went on to play his final eight Villa games as a No 9 before a hamstring injury cut short what was shaping up to be a compelling audition.
The highlight of this spell came in Villa's exhilarating 3-2 second-leg victory over Paris Saint-Germain, where an effervescent Rashford had the PSG defensive line in disarray with his sharp movement, menacing take-ons, and intelligent link-up play.
As The Athletic's player dashboard shows, Rashford operated across the width of the pitch on that night when Villa fell agonisingly short of taking the eventual champions to extra time, losing 5-4 on aggregate.
His 12 touches in the box were the most of any player, a sign that his centre-forward instincts are sharpening, yet he still had the licence to drift and impact the game from out wide. He set up Ezri Konsa's goal with a cross from the right after bursting past his marker with a clever nutmeg.
He was superb off the ball too, with his intelligent movement creating space for the midfielders behind him.
For Aston Villa's opening goal, Rashford ran onto a pass from Youri Tielemans and quickly laid it off to John McGinn on the edge of the area. Then, like an experienced centre-forward, he immediately drove into the box, his powerful central run dragging centre-back Willian Pacho with him and opening up space for Tielemans on the left-hand side of the area, giving the Belgian time and space to get off a shot that deflected in off Pacho.
Rashford's Manchester United career hasn't always suggested that his future lies as a centre-forward. But his promising, if short-lived, stint at Villa hints that he may be evolving into someone capable of thriving there.
For that reason alone, it's surely an experiment worth revisiting.