Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said it’s up to Marcus Rashford to get the most out of himself, not manager Erik ten Hag.
Solskjaer — who returned to Old Trafford as manager between 2018-21 — was in charge when Rashford enjoyed some of his best form including 22 goals in 44 games in the 2019-20 season.
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While the England striker has endured some patchy form recently, with just five goals so far this season, his former manager said it’s up to him to change the tide.
“I’m not sure it’s the manager’s job to get the best out of Marcus Rashford,” Solskjaer said.
“Is it the manager’s job to get the best out of him? Or is it mostly himself, or any player’s responsibility to get the best out of yourself? That’s more important.”
Rashford was hit with a fine and left out of United’s FA Cup fourth-round win over Newport County after visiting a Belfast nightclub before telling the club he was too ill to train.
The 26-year-old returned to the squad and scored in their 4-3 Premier League win over Wolves the following week. He has also since started in wins over West Ham and Aston Villa.
Meanwhile, Solskjaer has left the door open to making a return to managment, having been out of work since he was sacked by United.
“I am sure I have at least one club job in me,” he said.
“It has to be an interesting one, exciting one, somewhere adventurous, somewhere I can be myself.
“Because, no disrespect, after you’ve managed Manchester United for three years, it’s like where do you go.”
“I want to feel that pressure again. When you see the games now, you miss it a little bit.”
While he’s open to taking on another managerial role, Solskjaer accepts the game as changed “immensely” in recent years and that there’s a new way of dealing with modern players.
“It’s completely different, the way you talk to them [players] everyone has PR agencies and all these,” Solskjaer said.
“Back in the day, if Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to speak to me, he rang my phone and he spoke to me or we spoke on the training ground.
“Now, we have to go through different agents and management which I find strange, because football is a game played by people, managed by people, and you need to be able to speak together, to connect, to get the best out of each other and to trust each other.”