Marcus Rashford of Manchester United faced criticism on Sunday for his ‘pressing’ against Luton Town.
Erik ten Hag’s team did get away from Kenilworth Road with all three points, but the close 2-1 victory and a few standout performances showed where Man United needs to get better if they hope to catch up to Tottenham and Aston Villa.
One play from late in the game that appeared on social media was Rashford attempting to block Ross Barkley of Luton from moving up the pitch.
Rashford pressed Barkley when he had the ball, but he never made a tackle for the ball and instead stayed at a respectable distance from the former Chelsea player.
Barkley retreated and took the ball to Rashford’s left, where he was able to easily get past the Manchester United player, after the 30-year-old midfielder realised he could not get around the forward on his right.
Barkley was able to go around Luton with ease and little pressure, which did not impress Man United supporters, even if the entire procedure wasted precious seconds as Luton urgently tried for a late comeback.
One clip was shared on X (formerly Twitter) with the joke caption: “Top pressing by Rashford. Don’t know how Ross Barkley got tour him”.
“Would swap him for a bag of strawberry bon bons”, one user wrote in response to the video of Rashford, while another said: “A Jaffa cake would be a better distraction to Barkley then Rashford”.
Being in the ideal spot to score an ‘outrageous’ goal with his chest moments later, Rasmus Hojlund was the difference maker at Kenilworth Road, having opened the score within 40 seconds.
Though some have claimed the ball accidentally trickled into the net, the Dane stated he meant to score that goal.
He told Sky Sports: “Yes [I meant it]. I saw my body. I was surprised it was such a good goal to be fair. I’m trying to train like this.
After Hojlund’s early goal, he broke Joe Willock’s previous record of 21 years and 272 days to become the youngest player to score in six straight Premier League games, just 14 days after turning 21.
