Marcus Rashford didn’t play like the stereotypical English footballer even from the very beginning. English football has traditionally been stereotyped as based on crosses and long balls: In short, the antithesis of Brazilian or South American football. Rashford on the other hand had a full quiver of dribbling tricks that a world-class Brazilian attacker would use.
Recently, Rashford scored a deep freekick with Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark knuckleball technique where the ball is struck with the shoelaces with little follow-through and with the toe of the boot pointed down. This technique causes the ball to balloon up in the air over the wall and quickly dip down. It’s a technique that basically no one else in world football uses. The freekick wasn’t just shockingly good for the ball flight and technique, but the distance was easily from over 30 meters out.
Even before his recent stretch of games with outstanding golazos, the English forward stood out early on due to his smooth execution of tricks that Brazilian Ronaldo utilized and sometimes even invented. Rashford is a frequent practitioner of the elástico, which is a trick that’s rarer to spot than a Giant Panda in the wild. The Manchester United striker still showcases this trick seemingly every game, and it’s surprising to see every time.
The elástico and the freekick were just two examples of Rashford’s trademark un-English style of play, and it has to be said that there are more and more English footballers playing a more technical, creative, and advanced style of play. Say what you want, but this style of play was essentially never seen from English footballers. Mason Greenwood, another young Manchester United forward, as well as Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham also play a similar style of football.
Rashford’s freekick seems to have caused a surge in confidence for the forward, because in his recent Europe League match, he was seen being very active off the ball dropping almost to the defense to help with possession and to jump start the attack. Brazilian Ronaldo was famous for roaming all over the field, rather than standing around like Romario, and it must be said that Rashford is a complete player. Also in his recent Europa League match, he threaded multiple perfectly-weighted through balls past the opposition defense to feed Anthony Martial.
The Manchester United and England forward is a direct and aggressive attacking playing in addition to being creative and flashy. He utilizes his electric pace to sprint directly at opposing defenders and bum rush the penalty area. We’ll likely see a more emboldened Rashford with each game.
It’s safe to say that Marcus Rashford is now officially a world-class player.
Given Rashford’s skill-set, speed, style of play, and youth, Manchester United fans might want to fully appreciate him now and be prepared to say goodbye. If Gareth Bale played for Real Madrid for so many years, then Rashford looks poised to play for either that club or one of a similar level like Barcelona or Juventus.