Former Manchester United right-back Gary Neville has compared the start of Marcus Rashford’s career at Old Trafford to Cristiano Ronaldo’s, as reported in the Mirror.
The Sky Sports pundit Neville has compared Rashford’s goalscoring rate for the Red Devils at this stage of his career to Cristiano Ronaldo’s and says that he’s doing no worse than the Portuguese star.
The 22-year-old Rashford has been injured for United since January but has still managed to score 19 goals in 31 appearances in all competitions this season for the Old Trafford outfit.
Neville expressed that there shouldn’t be any doubts regarding Rashford’s strike rate as even five-time Ballon d’Or winner experienced a slow start to life at United in his opinion.
The ace also hinted that pressure shouldn’t be heaped on to the England international as Rashford is still developing.
Speaking to Goal about Rashford as quoted in the Mirror, Neville said:
“Marcus Rashford, to be fair, is still a young player [who’s] developing, he needs to be persisted with.”
“He will be persisted with because Manchester United believe in him, and they should believe in him because he’s a great talent.”
“When you’re sort of a young player… Alan Shearer didn’t score a goal a game at Southampton when he first broke in. Simple as that.”
“Cristiano [Ronaldo] didn’t do it at Manchester United when he first came to Manchester. We shouldn’t be expecting the same of Marcus Rashford.”
Ronaldo had scored just 35 goals for Manchester United in his first 129 appearances for the Red Devils, while Alan Shearer scored 23 goals for Southampton in 118 appearances for the Saints before he moved to Blackburn at the age of 22.
However, Rashford, on the other hand, has already outscored both Ronaldo and Shearer at this stage of his career at the age of 22, making 201 appearances for United, scoring 64 goals.
It’s certain that Rashford is a huge talent and should he stay fit, he could go on to break many records in his time playing for Manchester United.