Rio Ferdinand says ‘told you’ after Marcus Rashford confirms his claim of what he saw at the club ‘last week’

Add as preferred source on Google

The dark clouds of uncertainty were lifted from Old Trafford in some style with the 7-0 victory over Barnsley in the Carabao Cup.

Granted, it was a League One side, but for a team that struggled against Newport County and Coventry City last season, this display’s importance can’t be understated.

Confidence is key in football and many players got a shot of it with their performance vs Barnsley.

Perhaps most importantly, Marcus Rashford kept the goals flowing, building on his effort vs Southampton to score another two here.

Rio Ferdinand made a point of reminding the fans what he saw at the club last week as Rashford’s performance confirmed his claim.

Rio Ferdinand on what he saw at Man Utd

Coming into the game vs Southampton, Marcus Rashford played like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The nadir was reached in the previous match vs Liverpool, where supporters booed Erik ten Hag’s decision to take off Garnacho instead of Rashford for Amad.

However, as soon as his goal vs Southampton went in, it seemed like the 2022/23 version of Rashford decided to wake up from his slumber.

Rio Ferdinand saw it coming, as he said on September 16 that during a talk with Ten Hag, he saw Bruno Fernandes and Rashford doing extra work on the training pitch and laughing and smiling.

Rashford had scored against Southampton by then and to Ferdinand, looked like a man on a mission again.

After he scored twice against Barnsley to keep that form up, Ferdinand was quick to remind everyone that he had predicted this would happen.

He said: “Told you Marcus Rashford was looking happy. Ps Yes it’s Barnsley but confidence is key!”, accompanied by a side-eye emoji.

Marcus Rashford is key

Ferdinand makes a great point that the strength of the opposition doesn’t matter much when the quality of the player was never in question.

It was clear from Rashford’s style of play during his off days that his problem was more mental than a plain lack of quality.

As soon as he got his goal vs Southampton, he seemed more willing to pass forward, run at defenders, test the goalkeepers, and become an explosive player.

It was in stark contrast to just a week before when Rashford was booed repeatedly by Old Trafford as he killed United transitions by passing backward despite being in plenty of space.

Rashford has always been a player who needs to be happy and confident to play well and while that’s true for every player, the difference between his “happy version” and “sad version” is too extreme.

That is why Ten Hag’s decision to keep backing Rashford is a stroke of genius, as dropping him would have added to the malaise and probably shattered him completely.

It’s not ideal, and Rashford will need to develop further to keep setbacks separate and bounce back quicker, but for now, United finally have the lethal version back.