Marcus Rashford's Struggles at Manchester United: A Deepening Concern

Marcus Rashford walked off at Craven Cottage with a sore hip and another blank beside his name. No goal, no assist, and now no England for the next three weeks. The numbers are starting to bite.

Four starts from Manchester United’s opening five Premier League games. More than 400 minutes on the pitch. Still nothing to show in the final column. For a forward who once carried Old Trafford on his shoulders, the silence is deafening.

Michael Owen, watching on for Premier League Productions, did not hide his concern. This wasn’t just about end product. It was about what Rashford looked like while failing to find it.

“On the left, Marcus Rashford has been probably the quietest of those attackers,” Owen said. “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.”

That word – frustration – has followed Rashford for years. The pace, the power, the technique: all there. The rhythm, the relentlessness, the joy: missing again.

Owen went further, questioning how a player so gifted, so privileged in footballing terms, could appear so weighed down.

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

This is not the version of Rashford United thought they were getting back after his time away. Loan spells at Aston Villa and Barcelona were supposed to reset his career, sharpen his edge, and strip away the noise.

Instead, they’ve left more questions.

Owen pointed to that stint in Spain as a sliding-doors moment.

“Last chance saloon was Barcelona. I couldn’t believe his luck in getting a team like Barcelona,” he said. “He does reasonably well out there, but not well enough for them to keep him and then they end up spending fortunes to replace him by buying Anthony Gordon. So, it wasn’t all perfect. It wasn’t all rosy despite any spin that people put on it.”

Barcelona came and went. So did the chance to nail down a long-term role there. United welcomed him back, but not as a guaranteed starter, not as the untouchable figure he once felt.

“And then he comes back to Manchester United. He’s done okay, but only okay,” Owen said. “And he needs to probably do a little bit better in that front three because his is the position in the attack that would be vulnerable.”

Current Situation

That is the crux. The shirt no longer feels safe.

With competition intensifying, Owen believes Rashford is now the easiest name to drop in United’s forward line. The clamour is growing for Benjamin Sesko to return to the starting XI once his fitness allows. If that happens, there is a clear domino effect.

“There’s a bit of a demand for Benjamin Sesko to come back in and start, injury permitting of course,” Owen added. “But if that happens, Cunha is going to go on the left and Rashford would be the weak link in that attack as things stand.”

The phrase “weak link” would have sounded unthinkable when Rashford was rattling in goals and dragging United through bleak spells. Today, it feels brutally accurate.

For now, the debate pauses. The hip injury that forced him off in the second half against Fulham has ruled him out of England’s upcoming Nations League fixtures against Spain, Czechia, and Croatia. No international stage, no immediate chance to answer the criticism.

He will spend the next three weeks recovering, watching, listening.

United, meanwhile, have a different task: how to reignite a player who once looked like the club’s future but now fights to stay in its present. When Rashford is fit again, the question will be simple and unforgiving.