Video: “In no man’s land”: United forward bemoans club’s lack of direction since Sir Alex, INEOS will not be too pleased

Manchester United’s struggles since the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson retired is pretty well documented.

The Red Devils have now gone without a Premier League title for 13 seasons now. In fact, they have not even come close to challenging for the league title.

During that period, the club has employed nine different managers, including caretakers and interim appointments.

This constant chopping and changing has hardly helped matters with Marcus Rashford, who played under the majority of these coaches, pointing to it as a major cause for the club’s poor form.

Rashford on why United have struggled

He explained that when Sir Alex was boss, the first team and all the age-group sides in the academy were all brought up on the United way of playing.

But since then, different managers have come in with their own philosophies, and it has always been about trying to adapt from one style to the next.

“Show me a successful team that just adapts,” the Mancunian told Gary Lineker and Micah Richards on The Rest is Football podcast. “When Fergie was in charge, not only the principles for the first team, the whole academy setup so you could pick players from 15 years and over – that’s a full generation. And they’d all understand the principles of playing the Man United way, right?

“You see it with any team that’s been successful over a period of time: they have principles that any coach that comes in, any player that comes in, has to align to these principles or be able to add to these principles. Whereas at times I feel like United have just been … we’re hungry to win, so we’ll always try to adapt and to sign players that fit this system. But it’s reactionary.

“If your direction’s always changing, you can’t expect to be able to win the league. Yeah, you might win some cup tournaments, but it’s because you do have a good coach and you do have good players and you have match winners in your team – you’re not there by accident.

“This is what some people forget. So yeah, we’ve been way below where we deem United to be. But then if you take a step back, which I’ve been able to do, especially over the last six months – what do you expect? People say we’ve been in a transition for years. To be in a transition, you have to start the transition. So it’s like the actual transition has not started yet.”

The 20-time English league champions have won all the domestic cup competitions, as well as the Europa League, while also reaching several finals, but league success has kept eluding them.

And as per the England international, United should have learnt a thing or two from arch-rivals Liverpool, who stuck with Jurgen Klopp, even though he did not win anything in his first three seasons in charge.

Comparisons with Liverpool

“When Liverpool went through this, they got Klopp, they stuck with him. They didn’t win in the beginning. People only remember his final few years when he was competing with [Manchester] City and winning the biggest trophies – he certainly didn’t win for three years.

“To start a transition, you have to make a plan and stick to it. So this is the thing that I feel – it’s not easy. Because if it’s not going well, the fans demand [change]. But this is where I speak about being realistic with what your situation is.

“I feel like we’ve had that many different managers and different ideas and different strategies in order to win … you end up in the middle of – you end up in no man’s land.”

These quotes show that the Carrington graduate still has the club’s best interests at heart, but fans will not like the Liverpool comparisons, nor will INEOS and Ruben Amorim.

After all, he did down tools under the head coach last season, and pushed to leave his boyhood club. The co-owners will be hoping Barcelona trigger his buy option so that both can move forward instead of dwelling on the past.

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