Manchester United’s English striker Marcus Rashford (R) puts the ball past Norwich City’s Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul (L) to score the opening goal during the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Norwich City at Old Trafford in Manchester, northwest England, on January 11, 2020. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

Manchester United are sweating on the fitness of Marcus Rashford ahead of this weekend’s clash with Liverpool after the forward was taken off due to injury in their FA Cup victory over Wolves.

Rashford has become a key figure under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, scoring 19 goals in 30 appearances for the Red Devils this season.

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We’ve compared United’s record under Solskjaer when Rashford is in the starting XI to their record when he is on the bench or missing from the matchday squad altogether.

With Rashford starting
Played: 50
Won: 24
Lost: 15
Drawn: 11
Goals for: 79
Goals against: 59

Points per game: 1.66
Win rate: 48%
Loss rate: 30%
Goals per game: 1.58
Goals against per game: 1.18

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Without Rashford starting
Played: 13
Won: 8
Lost: 2
Drawn: 3
Goals for: 22
Goals against: 8

Points per game: 2.07
Win rate: 61.5%
Loss rate: 15.4%
Goals per game: 1.69
Goals against per game: 0.61

These stats don’t take into account the quality of the opposition, the standard of United’s line-up or a selection of other factors, but the Red Devils’ win rate is actually better when Rashford doesn’t start compared to when he is in the starting line-up.

Surprisingly, United also scores more goals per game when Rashford doesn’t play from the start and their loss rate almost doubles when he starts, although it should be pointed out that it is a much smaller sample size.

Either way, the stats would certainly appear to suggest Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should be able to cope even when Rashford is unavailable.

Source: PlanetFootball

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