Former Manchester United midfielder, Paul Scholes, has told current striker, Marcus Rashford, that he needs to model his game on another former Old Trafford legend.
Speaking together with Rashford on the Official Manchester Utd Podcast and reported by the Daily Mirror, Scholes suggested that Ruud van Nistelrooy was the benchmark for the United front man.
“I played No 10 with Ruud for a season – and I loved it,” the midfielder noted. “He’s just a ruthless, ruthless goalscorer. He just lived for scoring goals.
“Whenever he did score or didn’t score, the first thing he would do when we got on the team bus after the game was see if Thierry Henry scored.
“And if Henry had scored he wouldn’t talk to anybody for the full trip home because he was so engrossed in being the leading goalscorer, not just at United but in the league, in the world, everywhere.”
That single-mindedness is arguably what made the Dutchman one of the most feared marksmen of his day.
Rashford has some way to go in order to emulate the achievements of his contemporary, however, it’s worth pointing out that van Nistelrooy was an out an out striker whereas Rashford tends to cut inside from the wings.
To get anywhere close to the Dutchman’s level of finishing, the 22-year-old Englishman will surely need to become a lot more clinical in front of goal.
That’s because Van Nistelrooy may not have been a spectacular goalscorer, but he was seemingly always in the right place at the right time.
Rashford is already well on the way to becoming a United legend in his own right of course, but if he’s able to up his goal scoring output too, he might just go on to be one of the greatest strikers the club has ever seen.