Marcus Rashford will love what Cody Gakpo had to say about Ruud Van Nistelrooy, exactly what he needs

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Marcus Rashford will have loved what Cody Gakpo has been saying about new Manchester United coach Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

18 years on from Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s exit from Manchester United, when he joined Real Madrid, he is back at Carrington and in the form of a coach.

This appointment has been much to the delight of the fanbase who are delighted to see a club icon involved, and one who is a very talented coach at that.

Van Nistelrooy joins Erik ten Hag’s backroom staff, opting for this job over the manager’s position at Burnley which says a lot about his love for the club.

But now it’s a Liverpool player’s comments which have caught the eye and they will have Marcus Rashford very excited to work with the Dutchman.

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Cody Gakpo provides insight into Ruud Van Nistelrooy as a coach

Before Cody Gakpo was playing for the arch-nemesis of Manchester United, he was thriving in the Eredivisie under the tutelage of Van Nistelrooy at PSV Eindhoven.

Now, Gakpo’s comments on Van Nistelrooy have been shared in an article from The Times about the Dutch forward’s rise.

“With Ruud, we practised running patterns. He would tell us about his Manchester United team with [Ryan] Giggs and [Paul] Scholes. Everyone there knew exactly what run they would make.

“The message was: you have to interact, communicate, to make operating as a unit much easier.”

These comments are an excellent insight into what Van Nistelrooy can teach the forwards at Old Trafford, with Rashford likely to be a particular benefactor, given he thrives on making runs behind the defensive line.

Rashford and Gakpo actually share lots of similarities in physical qualities, their finishing and also ability to beat players. So we could see Rashford become an enhanced version of what Gakpo was at PSV.

Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund and Amad Diallo will also benefit if Van Nistelrooy is to drill them into emulating what he learned under Sir Alex Ferguson.

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Van Nistelrooy can make United’s attack better than ever

During the past two seasons, United have scored just 58 (2022/23) and 57 (2023/24) goals which is nowhere near enough to be competing at the top end of the table.

This was because often the forwards would look like strangers to each other, decision-making was poor, or players weren’t in the correct spaces.

But under Van Nistelrooy, with the comments from Gakpo about what he did for the forwards communication and working as a team should be a lot easier next season.

With a strong attacking group, set to be added to with Joshua Zirkzee – who Van Nistelrooy has spoken with already – hopes will be high that Van Nistelrooy can have an impact on the frontline.