I heard Old Trafford reaction to viral moment that showed Man United have a superstar in their squad again
For the fourth time in five starts, Marcus Rashford saw his time on the pitch cut short, but against FC Twente he showed enough to give the impression he could be back to his very best for Manchester United.
Rashford's form in recent weeks has been electric and the only surprise here was that he didn't last the night, with United searching for the winning goal that would have got their Europa League campaign off to the perfect start. The decision to take him off with just over 10 minutes to play bemused plenty inside Old Trafford who had seen he was the best route to a goal.
Erik ten Hag is keen to rotate his forwards this season, but the decision to take Rashford off, switch Alejandro Garnacho to the left and put the out-of-sorts Bruno Fernandes on the right felt a strange one. He neutralised an attacker who had tormented several members of the FC Twente defence and kept on a player struggling for rhythm.
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Rashford has certainly come a long way since his performance against Liverpool caused so much frustration. He was United's best creator on that day and Ten Hag defended him passionately, which only makes it more bizarre that he hasn't given him 90 minutes in his four appearances since then.
In the time he did spend on the pitch against FC Twente, Rashford did enough to make it feel like he was back to his best. Expected nutmegs is a metric yet to enter the football lexicon but Rashford was doing his best to introduce it in a first half that thrilled the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand. The forward stayed wide on the left and tormented whichever poor defender's turn it was to confront him.
He quickly established he had the beating of Bart van Rooij, gliding past him with minimal effort in one early duel. From there he took on all comers. There was a wonderfully inventive give-and-go with the intelligent Joshua Zirkzee and then the coup de grace, a flip-flap trick that left Ricky van Wolfswinkel with no idea where the ball was and had Old Trafford drawing breath.
The Stretford End had been singing Rashford's name from the first few minutes and it feels like the relationship between the homegrown star and supporters has been reset. Whatever it was that left the academy graduate out of form and out of belief last season has disappeared.
When Rashford scored at Southampton earlier this month and Ten Hag spoke in such positive terms about how many more goals were to come it felt like a corner might have been turned. There were false dawns last season, but to hear a manager who was so frustrated with the player last season suddenly speak so glowingly suggested he was seeing something he liked in training.
If this is it, then you pity the poor United defenders coming up against him every day at Carrington. Early in the second half he added Mees Hilgers to the list of defenders who didn't know what was coming next.
If there was a criticism of Rashford it was that he didn't score, but he played his parting creating opportunities for his teammates. His biggest chance came in the second half when Diogo Dalot's pass played him in, but with a defender closing him down he couldn't find the angle to get his shot on target.
United couldn't find a breakthrough late on either, but you feel their task was made harder by their most dangerous forward going off.