Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim said he is ready to nurture Marcus Rashford back to top form as he urged the England international to show his desire.
The forward scored the first goal of the Amorim era at Ipswich on Sunday. After that he struggled at Portman Road, after being picked in an orthodox number nine role he is not keen on.
It is now almost 18 months since Rashford showed his best scoring form, when he scored a career-best 30 goals in Erik ten Hag’s first season at United.
Amorim accepts the job he gave Rashford on Sunday was not ideal and has pledged to work with the 27-year-old to get him back to his best form.
However, the main factor is Rashford himself, according to United’s new boss.
“We’ll try to find the right solution for him but he has to be Marcus, first of all, to try to return to that moment,” said Amorim.
“Then he will have all the help of the staff, the club and the fans because he is a Manchester United boy. But he has to be the first one to want it.”
Only Everton and the bottom two, Crystal Palace and Southampton, have scored fewer than United’s 13 goals in the Premier League this season. Alejandro Garnacho is their top scorer with three.
It is little wonder that Amorim has been linked with a move for one of his former Sporting players in ex-Coventry forward Viktor Gyokeres, who is riding high in the Champions League top scorers’ chart this season with five.
But Amorim is steering conversations away from those thoughts. He feels there is enough talent in the United squad to find the net more often.
“Of course there is a concern,” Amorim said. “You could feel it in the second half [against Ipswich] when we controlled possession of the ball but we were not dangerous.
“I know the question is if I need a new striker scoring goals, but I think we have to improve as a team.
“We have quality players who can score so many goals. Rasmus [Hojlund] and Josh [Zirkzee] and Rashford will score more goals. Even Bruno [Fernandes] has to score more goals. Amad [Diallo] has to be better near the goal. All these guys need to improve.”
Amorim says he is looking forward to his first home game with United, against Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League on Thursday.
Three days after he complained at Ipswich about the amount of media commitments he had to deal with, Amorim was faced with a packed news conference room on Wednesday at United’s Carrington training ground.
At least this time there were no surprise distractions, after Ipswich shareholder and pop superstar Ed Sheeran interrupted Amorim’s post-match chat on Sky Sports at Ipswich.
The merits of Sheeran’s intervention have been widely debated, and the singer has apologised.
However, for Amorim, the matter was not an issue.
“It was nothing,” Amorim said. “It was a simple question to say hello to one of the commentators.
“I was with Roy Keane. He’s a real star. It was really OK.”
Players need to take blame for Ten Hag exit – Fernandes
Captain Bruno Fernandes has stood by his belief that United’s players need to take their share of the blame for Erik ten Hag’s dismissal.
Fernandes spoke to Ten Hag in the aftermath of his sacking on 28 October.
“Obviously, if you change a manager in mid-season, it is because things are not going as you want – and everyone has to take the blame,” Fernandes said.
“As I said before, it is easier to get rid of a manager than 15 or 20 players.
“But now our focus is on what the future can bring and as quickly as possible get the new ideas of the manager.”