Marcus Rashford is back

Training hard, running hard, passing fast ... and scoring again

FIVE ASIDES Premier League: Southampton 0, United 3

Marcus Rashford is back – back in the goals and back in business. His goal was a good one, classy and confident and clinical, the kind you expect to see when a striker is on a roll, not enduring a 12-game drought. He got a little lucky in that Aaron Ramsdale was unsighted and Matthijs de Ligt, who had just given United the lead, did well to bend his large frame out of the way. But it was a case of fortune favouring the brave. 

Both goals came just after corners, and both corners came about partly because of Rashford’s hard running and quick passing. First he picked up the ball in his own half from Diogo Dalot and played a give-and-go with Joshua Zirkzee. In fact it was a give-and-go-and-get-it-back-and-give-it-again. The two of them sliced through the Southampton defence like kids on the beach who’d been told to make a zig-zag. Zirkzee could even have given the ball back again, as Rashford had run on into space and wasn’t offside, but he opted to hit a low shot from distance, precise enough to be tipped round the post by Ramsdale. From the corner, Christian Eriksen drilled the ball back to Bruno Fernandes, who curled in a lovely cross. De Ligt twisted and stooped and sent a cute header back across Ramsdale. Harry Maguire, for all his strengths as a target man, doesn’t do that.

To win the second corner, Rashford put together a similar move on the other flank. He played the ball infield to Amad, again in his own half, and set off as if he had a goal to score. Amad knew what he had to do and played a crisp through ball, in to out. Rashford raced on down the wing, showing the benefits of the extra work he had put in during the international break (with a personal trainer and at a boxing ring). Bursting into the box at a tight angle, he could have played a cutback to the unmarked Zirkzee, but instead took a point-blank shot which Ramsdale (again) pushed away for a corner. Eriksen (again) took it, aiming for the head of De Ligt but overhitting. Amad picked the ball up on the left and (again) made a good decision with no fuss, slipping it to Rashford on the edge of the box. That’s where he should be: too often at corners in the past year, he’s been plonked in the moshpit. Given a little more time and space, he took one touch to his right and whipped his shot in off the far post. It’s too early to say that Rashford is right back to form, but the signs are good. When he plays this well, watching United becomes a pleasure.

The result wasn't exactly flattering, but it could easily have been very different. United were mediocre for the first half-hour and it took a moment of inspiration from André Onana, making a penalty save look easy, to galvanise them. They were presented with three gifts by their hosts. First, Russell Martin’s preferred penalty-taker was not Ben Brereton Diaz (who had never missed one) but Cameron Archer (who had never taken one). Second, Martin reacted to a bad run by picking four players for their first Premier League start. The gamble almost came off as one of them, Tyler Dibling, gave Dalot the run-around, much as Mo Salah had in United’s previous game, but the minute the penalty was missed, the Saints’ heads went down like the Under-10s. Third, Southampton defended as if they’d been studying last season’s United and decided to emulate them. When facing a corner, they generously left a man or two unmarked on the edge of the box; when attacked down the flanks, they went out of their way to leave space for a cutback. Alejandro Garnacho spotted this and helped himself to United’s third, a few minutes after Zirkzee had messed up a similar chance. Since that vital touch against Fulham, Zirkzee has been a disappointing marksman but a promising cog: he could be United’s Roberto Firmino.

Erik ten Hag got several selections right. He showed faith in Rashford and De Ligt, took his time with Manuel Ugarte, recalled the consistently inventive Amad and restored Garnacho to his role as United’s most incisive sub since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The only dubious decision was picking a pivot of Eriksen and Kobbie Mainoo (previous record when starting together: W2, D2, L2), but Ten Hag got away with it by instructing both Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui to drop into midfield and help them out. This was a must-win match and United won it in style. Now they just need to do the same against Barnsley, Palace, FC Twente and Spurs. 

Tim de Lisle is the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter for The Guardian. If you’re still on the medium formerly known as Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.