Former Manchester United coach Benni McCarthy believes that 'worrying too much' is partly to blame for Marcus Rashford's patchy form. The 26-year-old was substituted halfway through the Red Devils' 3-3 draw with FC Porto on Thursday.
Rashford opened the scoring for United but was still hooked at the break, with Erik ten Hag blasting his side's poor defending on the left-hand side. The Red Devils went down to 10 men thanks to Bruno Fernandes' red card but still managed to find a stoppage-time equaliser through Harry Maguire.
A humiliating half-time sub has raised fresh questions over Rashford's situation, and why the forward has been unable to replicate the form which saw him notch 30 goals in 2022/23 - the first season McCarthy was brought in by Ten Hag to coach the club's attackers.
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Having now left the Dutchman's Old Trafford coaching staff, McCarthy gave his take on Rashford's struggles to On The Whistle. "He didn't have a worry in the world, now he worries too much about what's been said, what's been done, what's going on," said the South African.
"If he can focus himself back to the Marcus that was just coming to training, loving being there, wanting to improve and work on all things - we used to work on every aspect of his game.
"As time has gone on, he's at a mental block where he's there but not playing to his full potential. He needs to get himself back to the place where he can block out all the noise, refocus and play like when he was in the academy, when everything you do comes from the heart.
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"He has lost a little bit of that. When I watch United now, sometimes I don't see the player I used to work with. I just see a player that's not himself."
Rashford has scored four goals in 10 games this season, though only one of those has come in the Premier League. It remains to be seen whether he returns to Ten Hag's starting XI for the crucial trip to Villa Park on Sunday.
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After rescuing a Europa League point against Porto, Ten Hag shed light on his decision to haul Rashford off so soon. "We have to rotate," he explained. "We go quickly with a turnaround to [Aston] Villa and they have had a day longer to recover and we have an away game.
"Over the left side definitely we didn't defend well tonight. Marcus also played a part in this but, as I say, it had to do with [Alejandro] Garnacho [coming on] and nothing against Rashy."
