There is a reason this conversation has restarted so quickly. Three league games into the season is not enough to make sweeping declarations, but it is enough to spot whether a player looks alive again. Marcus Rashford does. According to reporting from The Athletic, his display against Everton provided the clearest indication yet that Manchester United may have recovered a version of the forward that once terrified defenders in open space and changed matches on his own.
The key point here is not that Rashford has already returned to his 2022-23 level. He has not. He has no goals and no assists yet. The key point is that his game looks purposeful again. That matters more than the raw output at this stage. For a player whose decline had come to feel prolonged, messy and perhaps irreversible, the early signs are about movement, conviction and intent.
Against Everton, there was one action in particular that set the tone. Rashford took a floated pass from Bryan Mbeumo on the left, killed it with the outside of his right boot, shifted it again in the same motion and went past Merlin Rohl with the sort of ease that used to define his best afternoons. Then came the calm cutback into a dangerous area. The move did not end in a goal, because Diogo Dalot missed the first effort and Matheus Cunha sent the follow-up over, but the sequence was the story. It looked sharp. It looked fast. Most importantly, it looked natural.
That is what had been missing for too long. Rashford had moments in the period after his 30-goal campaign, a big strike against Manchester City, a fine finish against Liverpool, a smart contribution in the FA Cup final build-up, but those flashes did not add up to continuity. By the time he left, first on loan to Aston Villa and then to Barcelona, it felt like United had lost more than a forward. They had lost one of the few players in the squad capable of destabilising a defence by himself.
Rashford dribbling has purpose again
The numbers from the opening three matches support what the eye is seeing. Rashford has completed six dribbles, placing him among the better performers in the Premier League in that category. He has also created eight chances, a total matched within Manchester United only by Bruno Fernandes, and bettered by very few across the division. That is not trivial. Fernandes has built his reputation on volume creation. Rashford is matching him despite not starting the first match at Hull and despite still looking like a player rebuilding rhythm.
More importantly, these dribbles are doing something. Too often when a wide forward is praised for “looking lively”, the actions are decorative. A shoulder drop here, a step-over there, no consequence. Rashford’s work has led to shots, fouls, corners and panic in the opposition back line. That is what matters. End product can lag behind performance. Threat tends to arrive first.
Everton felt this repeatedly. Rashford ran at Rohl more than once and went after Vitalii Mykolenko as well when the shape opened up. He drove outside, cut inside, drew defenders in and made them commit. He forced James Tarkowski into emergency work. He won a booking when another burst left Rohl with little option but to pull him down. There was also a second-half move, beginning from a Luke Shaw pass through traffic, where Rashford surged between James Garner and Tarkowski before backheeling into Cunha’s path in the six-yard box. It should have produced more.
That sequence captures where Rashford is now. He is not merely hugging the touchline and waiting for transitions. He is engaging defenders, manipulating them and then making a decision with a degree of clarity. That was once his strength, then it drifted away. Now it appears to be coming back.
The same pattern showed up in the previous matches. Against Ipswich, one touch to control a high ball and a nutmeg to beat Marcelino Nunez created a shooting chance, while a dragback in the area sent Darnell Furlong to ground before frantic defending shut the move down. At Hull, after coming off the bench, he beat Cody Drameh for pace, checked inside to avoid the block and then found Kobbie Mainoo for an effort that was stopped. Different opponents, same theme. Rashford is attacking space and opponents with conviction.
Manchester United benefit from Luke Shaw link-up
There is another obvious factor in this mini-revival, Luke Shaw. The partnership between the two has always made football sense because their instincts complement each other. Shaw can underlap, overlap or simply give Rashford a trusted short option. Rashford, in turn, knows when to hold the ball and when to release it. The understanding is old, built over hundreds of matches, and it shows.
That relationship had an early impact against Everton. Shaw moved inside the channel behind Rohl and Brennan Johnson, Rashford delayed just enough, then played the pass at exactly the right moment. Shaw crossed, Mbeumo nodded back across goal and Fernandes rattled the bar. Simple combination, high value outcome. Good sides produce these routines repeatedly because the timing becomes automatic. United have not had enough of that on the left in recent seasons.
The data backs this up too. Rashford and Shaw have passed to each other 57 times already, one of the highest combinations in the squad. Their exchange of progressive passes is particularly telling, five each in the opening three games. These are not safe passes for the sake of ball retention. These are passes that move United closer to goal in meaningful zones. Several of Rashford’s into Shaw have put the left-back on the edge of the box or inside it. That suggests trust, and trust speeds up attacking play.
It is worth remembering the broader context. In the 2022-23 season, when Rashford hit 30 goals in all competitions, Shaw featured heavily. In the season after, Shaw’s availability dropped and Rashford’s numbers collapsed. Correlation is not causation, but in football relationships matter. A forward who knows the runner behind him and trusts the service around him plays with more certainty. Rashford looks like that player again.
Our View
As a hopeful Manchester United supporter, this report is exactly the sort of thing you want to read, while still keeping your feet on the ground. Nobody sensible should be declaring Rashford “back” after three games, and nobody sensible should ignore the last couple of seasons either. But there is something reassuring in hearing that the basics are returning, the acceleration, the bravery, the willingness to take a man on, and the quality of decision after doing it.
For United fans, Rashford matters differently because he feels tied to the club’s identity. When he is direct and dangerous, Old Trafford responds. You can feel the lift spread through the team and the crowd. The mention of his link-up with Luke Shaw is especially encouraging because that has always looked like one of the few natural combinations in the side, something built on repetition rather than improvisation.
The best part of this report is that it focuses on substance rather than sentiment. No goals or assists yet, fair enough. But chance creation, successful dribbles and purposeful actions are the right signs to watch first. If those continue, the numbers should follow. United do not need nostalgia from Rashford. They need production. Early evidence suggests there may finally be a path back to that.
