It’s safe to say it’s been a whirlwind start to Marcus Rashford’s Manchester United career.
The talented teenager started off his United first team career with a bang, scoring a double on his debut in the Europa League, and he’s just been breaking records and bagging goals ever since.
He scored on his Premier League debut, England U21 debut, His England debut and became the youngest player to ever score in a Manchester derby and the club’s youngest European goalscorer, beating a guy called George Best.
His blistering start to life at United under Van Gaal has continued apace under Mourinho – and despite him being used in a bit part role, supersub role, he’s already got four goals this year.
The lad is only 18 years old and he’s already played under two of Europe’s most successful managers in Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho at United, as well as playing alongside the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
So it’s interesting to hear the young star’s take on the contrasting managerial approaches by Mourinho and his previous Old Trafford incumbent.
“Van Gaal’s sessions are directly related to the games, whereas Mourinho is more about making players complete players,’ Rashford told Soccer AM.
“They are different and take getting used to, but everyone is relishing it.”
While it’s clearly a great footballing education for the teenager to be working under the likes of Mourinho and Van Gaal (who, we must add, was criticised for his lengthy team meetings and regimented training sessions) there’s one man he says he’s learned most from.
That’s fellow striker Wayne Rooney.
Wythenshaw-born Rashford told The Sun that Rooney has helped him cope with the pressure of making the huge step up to first team star.
“Growing up, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were the players I looked up to — and Carlos Tevez when he was at the club.
“I didn’t really speak to Cristiano as I wasn’t in the first team then, but I’ve obviously spoken to Wazza He’s given me advice. He’s told me to stick to what I have always done, and just keep playing my football.
“He started at a young age, too, made his Everton debut at 17, then moved here and went through a similar situation to me. So it helped me a lot knowing he had been through it, too.”
He admitted that he’s had to try and impress manager Mourinho since he has come in – not just on the field when he gets a run-out, but also day to day in training.
“You have to impress them whether they are new or not. I hope that over the last few games I’ve shown what I can do. But it’s not always the games where you get the message across. It’s every day in training. That’s when you have to impress the manager and the players, too.
“You have to gain their trust. For me, sometimes it’s more important to perform well in training and know that I am improving, rather than scoring in a game. It’s doing the hard work, day in, day out. The challenge for me is trying to follow up and recreate these moments.
“Once you do it in a game, people expect it again! But I think people know it’s difficult to do it all the time. But that’s the challenging thing — consistency. Especially at a younger age as a lot of things you are going through, some of the players have gone through it six or seven times. It’s different for me as I’m still experiencing that and still learning about the game.”
But it’s clear Rashford is going to be a huge star whoever he plays under – especially when you see how some of the world’s greatest players started out…
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