Manchester United manager deserves credit for unlocking striker’s full potential in a way his predecessors never could
The clock had not quite struck 8pm local time when Marcus Rashford began to glide across the Camp Nou turf in pursuit of a pass from Fred. And Rashford really is a beautiful runner in full flow: all clean lines and clear air, a player who moves as if he will never get mud on his boots. Marcos Alonso, the man who had headed Barcelona 1-0 up barely a minute earlier, moved across to jack-knife his run.
Well, of course Rashford scored. The ball was running away towards the goalline and the angle was tightening and Marc-André ter Stegen is one of the best goalkeepers in the world and none of that really seemed to matter. Rashford operates in a kind of deep thought these days: a mind constantly calculating, triangulating, finding solutions. If there is a gap to be found, he finds it. If there is no gap, he tries to create it. Within the space of a few seconds, and a few inches, Rashford had changed the entire feel of this tie.
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