Marcus Rashford gave a frank assessment of Manchester United’s miserable current plight in the wake of their latest chastening defeat.
United’s 3-1 loss at home to local rivals Manchester City , in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final, showed just how far the struggling Reds have fallen.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side were humiliated by Pep Guardiola’s side, who plundered all their goals in a remorseless first-half display and should have won by a more significant margin.
Rashford’s second-half strike gave United a sliver of hope ahead of the return leg, but he was honest enough to admit Solskajer’s men are failing to deliver and fulfil their potential as a team.
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“We’re probably only showing half of what we can do as a team,” admitted Rashford.
“We need to keep fighting to find that extra percentage that will win us games.
“Nobody wants to lose. Nobody started playing football to lose games. I don’t think that’s the problem.
“I think everyone knows that we want to win and that the team is fighting. We have to continue to do that. Everything can improve a lot.
“We were way off the tempo. They changed a little bit and brought more players deeper than the last time we played against them.
“But on the pitch we have to adapt. We have to try to control the situation better than the way we did. The first-half wasn’t a Manchester United performance, but in the second-half we showed character and courage and it was more like us.”
Solskjaer questioned the mental strength of his players after the defeat, claiming it cannot always be down to him to get them in the right mindset to perform.
The message was that has to come from the players themselves, the clear inference being many of them are simply not strong enough mentally to play for a club the size of United.
There are issues for Solskajer to address all over the pitch, from defence to midfield and attack, with United lacking the requisite quality after years of poor recruitment.
While United remain a young side and a work in progress, Rashford admitted they cannot keep making the same mistakes and must learn from them at some stage.
“Until they scored the first goal, we were in the game,” said Rashford. “Those key moments, we have to learn to control them better than we have done this season.
“It’s a learning curve for us. We’ll learn from it, but it’s not going to keep us down. We’re going to put it behind us and the best way to do that is by winning the next game.
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“It’s about winning and we want to prove to ourselves we can win consistently.”
Rashord, who will make his 200th United appearance on Saturday against Norwich, wore the captain’s armband for the first time against City but admitted defeat had tainted the experience.
“It’s obviously a proud moment but, for me and the other players, it’s the result that matters,” said Rashford.
“It’s one I’ll probably look back on as a nice moment, but for now it’s not something that’s on my mind.
“Whether you have the armband or not, you have to put that responsibility on your own shoulders and try to show yourself as a Manchester United player.”
Too many currently wearing the famous red shirt are not doing that and it remains to be seen how many will survive the cull that has to happen if United are to reclaim their former dominance.
