Tottenham 2-2 Manchester United | Marcus Rashford | Analysis

Marcus Rashford has been one of the best players in the Premier League this season and his natural progression to the centre forward position with Ten Hag, taking him to another level as in the Tottenham vs Manchester United. This position allows him to have more mobility, dropping to receive in the middle of the pitch, making good decisions in the distribution, highlighting his long balls to switch plays. Another of his characteristics in his style of play is to appear between the lines, having good vision and spatial awareness, knowing what he is going to do before receiving the ball.

Thus came the first goal, Rashford behind the midfielders, Bruno Fernandes attacks the space pinning the center backs, not allowing them to get out of position to cover Rashford who turns and gives a pass to the left where Sancho is going to take advantage of Eriksen’s overlapping. He drifts in and finish the play without any Tottenham defender trying to block the shot.

When Rashford receives with his back to goal under pressure he has a great first touch, linking up with team-mates or escaping the defender with agility.

His good reading of the game and decision making can be seen in this play where he runs from the left flank to attack the space on the edge of the box and finish with another of his skills, the long-range shot.

He had one of the best chances in the first half with a good positioning inside the box, Fernandes dinks a wonderful ball into Rashford’s path at the far post. The forward meets it on the volley, but Forster makes himself big and saves the shot.

His influence on the game is seen in this play in which 6 players are orientated pressing him.

One of the situations from which he has scored the most goals during his career is attacking space, always looking for the gap between center back and full back or between center backs, with good timing to receive the pass in the back of the defence.

That’s how he scored the second goal, Fernandes picks out Rashford’s run with a long ball over the top. The United forward isolates Dier, who is very weak in the duel and leaves too much space for Rashford to accelerate, sprinting past his England team-mate and firing home.

Marcus Rashford played a great game as a centre forward being one of the players who has improved the most since the arrival of Erik Ten Hag at Manchester United.