[used ai to fine tune numbers and sentences] Now that the season is nearly over and the tides have settled, its time to discuss the future of my fav player for clearly off field reasons: Marcus Rashford,Hence i have prepared a in depth statistical analysis of how his season has faired so far. Image 1 is just rashford
Image 2
- What it shows: A direct side-by-side comparison of Rashford's percentiles against the mean average of all 19 other elite wingers
- Insights: This makes it easy to spot exactly where Rashford over-performs or under-performs relative to his peers. He massively outperforms the elite average in Assists (99.2 vs avg 54.3) and npxG + xA (95.4 vs avg 83.1), but falls slightly below the elite average for Crosses completed (24.2 vs avg 49.1)
Image 3
- What it shows: This separates the top 14 left wingers into four quadrants based on the dataset average (dashed lines).
- Top-Right: Elite dual-threats (High Goals, High Assists).
- Top-Left: Goalscorers (High Goals, Low Assists).
- Bottom-Right: Creators (Low Goals, High Assists).
- Insights: Rashford sits a bit shy into the bottom right elite top-right quadrant alongside Ousmane Dembélé and K. Kvaratskhelia. Interestingly, you can see how Bradley Barcola sits firmly in the extreme top-left as a pure finisher compared to Rashford's more balanced creative threat. while i have not included raphinha since he was injured most of the season ( for those wondering olise would be extreme corner right and yamal just outside the box in extreme right corner bit beyond olise but close)
Image 4
- What it shows: This plot measures how clinical a player is by comparing the quality of chances they are involved in (npxG+xA) versus their actual output (G+A).
- Analysis: In this extended group, we can see that Vinícius Júnior and Mohamed Salah remain the primary goal-per-90 threats. Rashford (0.87 G+A) is performing as an elite playmaker,Our Rapha boy (0.69 G+A), providing a consistent source of goal involvement.
Image 5.
- What it shows: This evaluates the complete "Two-Way" nature of the players. Quadrants are divided by the dataset average (dotted lines).
- Analysis: The Workhorses: Bukayo Saka and G. Martinelli and Lamine Yamal still lead this category, generating elite pressure and tracking volume. The Barcelona Pair: Interestingly, Raphinha (2.10) shows significantly higher defensive activity than Rashford (1.45), highlighting Raphinha’s importance as the primary extreme pressing outlet role and why he is so important to flick. Rashford's data has stabilized into a balanced "wide playmaker" role—active but not a specialized presser compared to his offset in raphinha while Yamal's defensive activity and offensive contribution have been class above all
Image 6
- What is shown: This visualizes how often a player takes on opponents (Volume) versus their reliability in keeping the ball (Efficiency).
- Observations: While Rashford maintains a high-volume attempt rate (≈4.8), his success rate (51.1%) is among the midway in both attempts to succesion in thisgroup. This profile indicates he is not much of a very big risk-taker who attempts direct transitions all game. Contrast this with Raphinha (50.5%), or Vinícius Júnior (attempts 8.5+ with 47%), who are both more reliable in close-quarters take-ons. Players like Takefusa Kubo and Luis Díaz are shown here as high-efficiency dribblers too while drum roll…..Lamine yamal is above everyone by miles in europe
After going through all these stats and obviously watching him too what do you think honestly? ,giving my honest opinion is comments too.
ps: rashford's defensive contributions would have been slightly lower before international break but he has improved decently since so it increased by a margain of 0.092 (might not seem much but pretty good for a player known to walk only and changes like this have in count his previously played minutes , so he needs to compensate for them too to increase it overall like this )
by Chemical_Listen6919
19 Comments
Nice write-up. I think these stats show that he’s definitely been a valuable contributor to the team, despite people shitting on him. Not the best winger in the world obviously, but a step above a lot of other wingers.
Send him back
Rashford if anything , it’s his fist year of adaptation. Not everyone can be insane on their first year.
While I do believe he miss sitters and could do much better in pressing , he has qualities that other players won’t have like his insane accurate crosses , his unselfish passes , and his speed with the ball.
He also has great long shots
It’s a good substitute player, he may get better with time
Too bad Barcelona pundits have done it again and blamed him for not scoring 3 goal in 20 minutes against Atletico so he’s considering returning to Manchester. So we are back to square one on squad depth. God damnit
For 30m, this guy is a steal
In the second chart, top-right Dembele! Wow!
Fine for depth and 30 million is a good deal. Some english team will also pay that for him if we want to sell him after a year.
Hindsight is 20/20, but I really wish we signed Luis Diaz when we had the chance.
Will be a good signing for 30 million. But he needs to step up just just a little more. He’s very different from raphinha and that adds some variety and depth. The best rashford I saw in past 4 years was Aston villa v psg 2nd leg. He was creating insane number of chances and was positionally so fluid. They won that game but didn’t qualify by a single goal on aggregate. (3-2 I believe and aggregate was 4-5)
With his stats and performances, I doubt anyone would even be making the “send him back” comments if Rapha wasn’t injured for almost half of the season.
At the end of the day, he was brought to be a bench player, and for the most part he did great, as a first season in a foreign league.
The way fans want him to perform would be a player worth 100 million in today’s market.
In a world where average wingers go for 60-70 million, getting a player with **0.87 G+A per 90** for 30 million is essentially a gift but the defensive contribution criticism is fair to an extent too and he did miss a decent chance in our first leg which he should have buried but they are not set in stone and can be fixed with work , his quality is too much to ignore for that much ,and its obvious he is going to take a pay cut ( reports are coming contract terms are agreed with rashy so they might have agreed on a fair wage plus with the injury crisis like this season we need players like this , he couldn’t score but was getting into those spaces constantly( reminds of ferran xD), without him we would be way worse right now
[the striker or rashford]-Rashford *can* play centrally in a pinch, but he’s obviously most dangerous coming off the left. If keeping him means starting an aging or subpar striker because the budget is gone, the team might lack that “killer” in the box to finish the chances Yamal&Rashford are now creating.
If the club has to choose between a “luxury” winger and a “necessary” CB, they usually pick the defender. But Rashford isn’t a luxury at 30 million
Moving to a new country and a new league is hard. The data shows he hasn’t just survived; he’s thrived. For a player to adapt to the “Barca way” and hit those creative numbers is rare.Selling or letting go of a player who finally “clicked” just to gamble on a new striker or CB is how clubs end up in transition cycles for years. I’d keep Rashford, enjoy the 30 million bargain, and look for a “low-risk, high-reward” veteran striker or a promising intimidating CB to fill the other gaps.
if you decide to pass on Rashford to save that 30 million for other areas, you have to be very surgical. You need “market inefficiencies”,players who are either undervalued, have expiring contracts, or are playing for clubs that need to sell(looking at you spurs)
some options if we do not go for him
winger-Alberto Moleiro (got that barca blood in him), Bryan Zaragoza
striker- osimhen and alvarez are obvious but Santiago Giménez, Mathys Tel from spurs ,Evan Ferguson,Samu Omorodion
centre back-Murillo,Bastoni,schlotterbeck,diomande,Cristhian Mosquera from valencia ( following lot of valencia games this season and he is promising as a backup cb, pretty solid , surely go for him if dont have much money after a big striker signing, his recovery on counters is very good)
Don’t really care if I’m being honest. Stats will convince you that Lewandowski is the best striker itw right now. Because, statistically, he’s literally top 3 still lmao. Thing is we have this thing called eyes.
I’m a fan of Lewandowski. I love him. But he is not a sustainable option for us up front, and we all know it. Now do I agree with people shitting on Rashford? No. But he is not sustainable. He is not a reliable player, and 30m for a BACKUP.
I repeat. **THIRTY MILLION… FOR A SUBSTITUTE PLAYER.** Sorry, but no thanks. Not to mention his wages would be upwards of 10 million too.
I honestly don’t want him. His finishing costed us the first leg. His defensive contributions aren’t good either, no pressing or tracking back (the way he should I mean). And all of this while he hasn’t gotten a contract now imagine after (United fans also say same). And I don’t think a 28 y.o has much room for growth. Rooney came as substitute like 5 last minutes and did better than Rashford did in 30 min. I had rather we spend those 30 mil on a striker.
Only if we can get him on loan again to spend on other areas we desperately need
While I’m not convinced lets remember past 2 years we had Fati so Rashford at least offered a step above what we had.
This is talent he’s not upto the task. Especially as a super sub. I wish club brings abde eze from betis.
We need a growing LW that will replace Rapha not a sub player for 30mil. Rashfor only showed up against New castle basically all his goals where mostly non factors on mid table teams.
Is this data /90? He doesnt start or play the full 90 like ever for us. Would make him look even better if so