Marcus Rashford: Mystery of ‘glum-faced’ Man Utd star solved as there’s ‘something behind scenes’ | OneFootball

Can anyone think what’s wrong with Marcus Rashford? He’s all “glum-faced”. Probably “something behind the scenes”. Next we’ll be telling him to focus on his football again.

Having been billed as an extraordinary turn of events and one of the great transfer non-stories by the journalists who make their coin peddling such things, Rashford’s return to Old Trafford after loan spells at Aston Villa and Barcelona was met with wholly predictable indifference from Manchester United fans, who could take or leave him.

He was once the greatest hope for the future but became a symbol of what was wrong with the football club, as a perceived lack of effort on his part incredibly led a majority of fans to side with the worst manager in their history, Ruben Amorim.

There’s often an antidote for a so-called poisonous influence and former teammate Michael Carrick – who has that lesser seen but much-fabled Manchester United DNA coursing through his veins – might just be that medicine.

We don’t know yet. We’re five games into the season. And while we’re now taking all things Carrick says with a pinch of salt after he revealed he was pleased with the energy his side showed in the “worst 15 minutes of football” Gary Neville has ever seen from a Manchester United side, the manager’s “good” but “not quite” assessment of Rashford’s displays feels perfectly reasonable.

Carrick told beIN Sports: “We had to bring him off as he had a bit of an issue.

“Marcus was a threat. He could have had a couple of goals for us. He’s another one who is getting himself in good positions, it’s just not quite falling for him. It will.

“We know Marcus. We know how to get the best out of him and will continue to do that.”

He’s not been sh*t, has he? But even if he had been, he’s allowed to be sh*t without it being about something other than him being a bit sh*t. Most footballers are sh*t at some point.

The majority of Arsenal’s Premier League-winning team were sh*t against Brighton on Saturday. Florian Wirtz cost Liverpool £100m and he’s been almost exclusively sh*t for over a season now. Anthony Gordon – Rashford’s replacement at Barcelona – was flying for four games and has been a bit sh*t since.

But Michael Owen isn’t convinced. There got to be “something” going on.

He told Premier League Productions: “On the left, Marcus Rashford has probably been the quietest of those attackers. He was quiet again today in his body language, just the glum face.

“He just doesn’t seem to be loving his football which has been a permanent frustration with Marcus.

“It does look like the weight of the world is on his shoulders and you just think how? Why? He’s living everybody’s dream.

“Surely there’s something behind the scenes that is making him look as if he’s not enjoying his football at the moment.”

Maybe he’s “glum-faced” because Manchester United have been rotten? Maybe because he’s not been great individually? Maybe because he knows that he will be criticised by pundits who obsess over everything he does or doesn’t do?

Or maybe, Michael, he is actually enjoying his football but isn’t running about the place with a grin on his face because he would look a) insane, and b) like he was taking the p*ss out of his boyhood club as they plunge back into crisis.

Matheus Cunha looked like a bereaved man in his post-match interview on Sunday. All of them quite rightly trudged from the pitch after a third pathetic display on the bounce. Imagine the media battering Rashford would get if he was anything other than “glum-faced”.

Maybe it’s our mistake for reading Michael Owen quotes, a man who of course famously skipped off the Bernabeu pitch having been booed by the Madristas and bloody loved the injury-plagued decade at the end of his career.