Marcus Rashford has been warned he’s going to have a battle on his hands to make it into the Barcelona XI after he joins from Manchester United.
The forward is set to arrive on a season-long loan but faces competition for a place in the line-up from Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Raphinha and Ferran Torres.
Former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand says Rashford will have to improve on recent seasons to get game time at Camp Nou.
“Where’s he going to play? He’s got to fight his way into
ADthis team. A lot of people, including myself, didn’t think this opportunity at Barcelona would actually be there for Marcus Rashford, given what he’s produced over the last two years,” he said on his YouTube channel.
“He hasn’t produced the Marcus Rashford that we first saw running in behind, aggressive runs, finishing things, shooting from crazy angles, assisting goals.”
“His game has changed, wanting to dribble with the ball more. But what made him hard to play against was that he was willing to run behind. He’s magic at that when he gets that right and when he’s consistent with that. He could be that difference for this Barcelona team.”
“Raphinha doesn’t mind running in behind, but he does like it to feet. Lamine Yamal would rather get it to feet and dribble. And Lewandowski is not someone who can run in behind as much anymore. He’s more of a target man, great finisher.”
Ferdinand also thinks that Flick will want something different from Rashford and it will be up to the loanee to add value to the team.
“Where he fits in won’t be is he going to start, it’s what’s the difference that he makes? I think Flick will be wanting that as well, ‘Give us something different to what we’ve already got’. Raphinha on the left, Lewandowski up front, Lamine Yamal on the right.” he added.
“He doesn’t automatically start in this team, but he could go in there and be a huge impact and then get games off the back of that impact. But Marcus doesn’t have to go in there and displace anybody.
“He’s got to go in there and add value to this team. Take them from where they finished last season, where they won the league, got to the semi-finals of the Champions League and go one better.”
Rashford is expected to link up with his new team-mates shortly and then join the squad on a pre-season tour of Asia.
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