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Ruben Amorim believes Marcus Rashford has to “really want it” if the forward is to recapture his 30-goal Manchester United form of two seasons ago.
Rashford scored after two minutes of United’s 1-1 draw at Ipswich on Sunday, Amorim’s first game in charge, but this was only his fifth goal in 19 appearances. Last term Rashford scored only eight goals in 43 games, having registered a career-high 30 in the previous campaign.
Amorim was asked what was required for Rashford to return to his best. “He has to be the first one to really want it,” the head coach said. “Then, he will have the help of all the staff and fans. He has to be Marcus – he is a Manchester United boy.”
Rashford operated at No 9 in Amorim’s 3-4-3 at Ipswich but has previously stated he prefers to play wide left. “That position [against Ipswich] is not the best one for him,” Amorim said. “Especially in a game like that, he was fighting with two giants [the centre-backs] and we will try to find the right solution for him.”
Amorim said Bruno Fernandes, Rasmus Højlund, Joshua Zirkzee and Amad Diallo also need to score more. United have only 13 league goals and 32 from 19 games in all competitions. Amorim said: “There is a concern [about this] but we have to improve as a team, we have quality players that can score so many goals, You can feel in the second half we controlled possession of the ball but were not dangerous.
“We will try to improve as a team, Rasmus and Rash and even Bruno to score more goals, Amad. All these guys need to improve, We can score so many goals. I don’t need new strikers to score – we can improve as a team.”
Amorim was asked whether he would ever deviate from 3-4-3 to, for example, a back four. “We’ll do it – we have to do it,” he said. “And when I talk about our structure, I believe we can play in different systems. So we defend more in this game [Ipswich], sometimes in a 4-4-2, because Amad [the right wing-back] was with [their] left-back. So we want to put the structure in place, and then we have to play in different systems. Nowadays every team changes the dynamics. So we will adapt that.”
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Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martínez are available after injury for Thursday’s visit of Bodø/Glimt for the fifth Europa League group game. United are 15th with six points.
