Ruben Amorim urges Marcus Rashford to show he wants to return to his best – as Man United head coach vows to ‘help him’ regain form

Ruben Amorim has told Marcus Rashford to show him that he wants to get back to his best at Manchester United.

Rashford scored after 80 seconds in Amorim’s first game as head coach at Ipswich on Sunday before fading in a 1-1 draw at Portman Road.

Having been left out of the England squad again, the 27-year-old star flew off to New York during the international break and missed Amorim’s arrival at United.

The former Sporting Lisbon boss refused to criticise Rashford but indicated that he would have handled the situation differently.

Rashford scored 30 goals in Erik ten Hag’s first season at United in 2022-23, but that dropped to eight last term and he has scored four times in the current campaign.

‘I will try to help him,’ said Amorim, who played Rashford as a centre-forward in his 3-4-3 formation against Ipswich. ‘That position is not the best one for him, especially in a game like that. We have to kick with high pressure, we have to kick the ball so many times, and it was like fighting with two giants.

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‘We’ll try to find the right solution for him, as for the other players. But he has to be Marcus, first of all, to try to return to that moment and then he will have all the help of the staff, the club and the fans because he’s a Manchester United boy. But he has to be the first one to want it.’

Amorim admitted the lack of goals from a United side that has scored only 13 goals in 12 games in the Premier League this season is worrying. 

‘Of course, there is a concern in that, but I think we have to improve as a team because we have quality players who can score so many goals,’ he added.

‘But you could feel it in the second half. We control possession of the ball but we were not dangerous. 

‘Maybe because we spend the week trying to work on build-up and then the rest was not working.

‘We will try to improve as a team and Rasmus (Hojlund) and Josh (Zirkzee) and Rash will score more goals, even Bruno (Fernandes) has to score more goals! Amad (Diallo) has to be better near the goal. 

‘All these guys need to improve and we can score so many goals. We need to improve as a team and these players can score goals.’