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3rd March 2016
05:03pm GMT
Instead, Rashford’s raw enthusiasm highlights the damage that the Dutchman has inflicted on the once great club.
A player who goes out and is unburdened by van Gaal’s tactical straitjacket, and is still carefree enough to play on instinct, has lit up their campaign in the space of a fortnight.
There is no sideways passing; there is no attempt to play the safe ball. Rashford, with his unfiltered talent, highlights how the club have got it so wrong under the Dutchman.
Would we even know of him if it wasn’t for an injury crisis? Look how the light in Anthony Martial’s eyes has dimmed to a candlelight glow in the few months he has worked with the Dutchman and his staff.
It would be an almighty shame if the same were to happen to Rashford, as the malaise that has afflicted his ‘Walking Dead’ like team-mates.
https://twitter.com/Squawka/status/705294914486022146
Many United players are clearly afraid of being creative, fearful of breaking the omerta surrounding van Gaal’s tactics. They do not trust him but are condemned to the pedestrian game the ex-Ajax coach loves.
The win over Arsenal last weekend was a typical Manchester United mish-mash, with one individual rising above the morass in which the club currently finds itself.
Even the success over Watford was once again founded on a piece of individual skill - a wonderful free-kick from Juan Mata - that van Gaal seems determined to coach out of players.
Special individuals are struggling to flourish at Old Trafford, but Rashford is a player who must be allowed the freedom to develop and prosper, as well as fail, in his own style.
The concern is, will he be allowed do that at his boyhood club under the current regime.
Rashford was brought into Manchester United in 2005 when the club still believed in youth, still had an academy that was the envy of their City rivals (instead of vice versa) and still had a definable way of playing in 2005. It was speed of thought, it was fleet of foot, and it was beautiful to watch in full flow.
Old Trafford is treated to so few of those moments now that, when they get them, they crack out the champagne and try and pretend that the good times are back.
Rashford may be able to defy gravity for a while, but physics will always catch you in the end.
The club are on a downward spiral unless Rashford and his younger colleagues are allowed do what comes naturally, and that is go against almost everything in any coaching manual.
https://twitter.com/marcus_rashford/status/705365201013477376
The February player of the month award is unlikely to be the last gong the teenager picks up this season, even if calls for his inclusion in England's Euro 2016 squad are a tad premature.
But any success he derives with not be down to Manchester United's current manager.
It will not be down to anything to do with his team-mates laborious play.
It will be down to the most thrilling thing in football, unpredictability.
And there’s no coaching that.Explore more on these topics:
