Marcus Rashford has revealed that former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho helped him to become less angry at the club. The 27-year-old England forward admitted he used to berate himself if he didn’t play a perfect game, regardless of whether United won or lost. However, Mourinho’s more relaxed approach to winning had a significant impact on Rashford.
Currently on a season-long loan at Barcelona, Rashford offered the insight while speaking to Gary Lineker and Micah Richards on The Rest is Football podcast. When asked by Lineker which coaches at United had the most influence on him, Rashford mentioned Louis Van Gaal, Mourinho, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He went on to discuss the unique qualities of each coach, expressing surprise at Mourinho’s distinctive approach during his tenure from 2016 to 2018.
“Yeah, they’re [all three coaches] different, but [that’s] because we’ve had so many different managers,” Rashford said, referring to the 10 managers United have had since 2013.
“It’s so hard, It’s impossible for me to compare the managers, but when you’re a developing player, like at a young age, you learn stuff that you’ve never… no one’s ever taught you that before.
“So like up until Jose, I’d never had a manager that was so fixated on winning before Jose. Van Gaal wasn’t fixated on winning… he was fixated on winning, but he wanted to play a beautiful style of football. Jose don’t care. Do you know what I mean?”.
“As long as you win, of course, if you could choose, he’d want you to play well. But if you win, you win. You move on to the next game.”
Explaining how Mourinho’s methods proved a welcome shift for him, he said: “He [Mourinho] had this attitude. In the beginning, it was confusing for me because all the way through my development at United, it was about playing a certain style of, like winning a certain way. So in the beginning, I was angry all the time, like we’ve not played well today, we’ve won.
“But because we’ve won and he’s a manager that is just a winner, he doesn’t bring up the points that you know was missing from that last game because we’ve won. But when we lose, he brings up the points then. But after like six months, I just learned to respect it and then I started to reap the rewards from him as a coach.”
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Following months of rumours, Rashford eventually left United, the club he joined aged just seven, for Aston Villa at the start of the year. After netting four times under Unai Emery, he chose to join the Spanish heavyweights this summer.
United manager Ruben Amorim is now presiding over another fresh chapter at Old Trafford. United ended up 15th last season and were defeated by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League Final.
When pressed to identify what has gone awry at his former club, Rashford reckons the Red Devils have strayed from the “principles” established by their ex-legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
“When Ferguson was at the helm, there were principles not just for the first team but for the entire academy,” he said. “So you could select players from 15 years and they’d all comprehend the principles of playing the Manchester United way.
“Any team that has been successful over a period of time has principles that any incoming coach or player must align with or contribute to. Sometimes, United were eager to win but it was reactionary. If your direction is constantly shifting, you can’t anticipate winning the league.”
