How long ago, if it feels that the sight of Marcus Rashford is bursting with the ball at his feet, Manchester United would bring to the edge of their seats and fear in the hearts of the defenders trying to stop him .
How long ago it also feels that Rashford scored 30 goals only a season and a half ago and it seemed as if he could be the man to hurry United back to where they once ruled.
Rashford has not put a ball in a professional match since mid -December when Ruben Amorim cut him out for the hour in their Europa League match against Viktoria Plzen and throw him to the shadow.
“I couldn't show Marcus how you should play football and train as I see,” Amorim said earlier this week.
Fortunately, Villa -Baas Unai Emery believes that he can get Rashford to see it as he does and we can even see it against Tottenham in the FA Cup on Sunday for the first time.
If he can, Villa and Rashford can be exactly what needs each other.
A direct decline
What was once the most devastating part of Rashford's game has disappeared. Where he once hit his defender on every occasion and left them in his material so often, that exciting directness – or at least the confidence to do this – has now disappeared.
In Rashford's Scintillating 2022-23 campaign, which scored 30 goals in all competitions in him, he was almost impossible to stop the ball at his feet.
No player registered so much shot end, with a player dribbling at least five meters with the ball before he gained an attempt. Only Arsenal wing player Gabriel Martinelli scored from more of them. Only Bukayo Saka tried to hire his opponent more often than Rashford. That directness distinguished him.
Now Rashford records its opponents less often than ever before. And when he decides to do this, he hits them less often. His take-on success rate this season is 21 percent, about every five being lowest of each season of his career and half as often as in 2022-23.
It is also not only the belief or desire to beat his husband. On average, it is the least number of shots per game than ever before and has the least accents in the box.
He has never been anonymous again, but the hope is that he has now found a team and a manager who can bring him forward again.
Villa's wider issue
In the absence of Ollie Watkins, Rashford Emery offers another option to play in the middle, but if there is a kind of player who is missing the villa boss, it is an explosive wing player, especially left.
Emery often plays with one winger wide and the other, on the opposite flank, narrower with the full-backs that offer the width.
Leon Bailey, the first cord -like winger, has remained wide, but has nowhere near the impact he did last season, where he scored 10 goals and put a nine on the road on the top four. So far he has scored once with a few assists.
Emery has juggled his options. Jacob Ramsey is the current first choice, which starts the last four league games, but he also has only one goal and a few assists throughout the season. John McGinn and Morgan Rogers shared the nine competitions for that.
McGinn still has to score it, while Rogers scored three of his league goals this season when starting the left flank, but can be played more effectively through the middle.
Ramsey and Bailey have created only 27 opportunities between them so far. That is less combined than Villa Full-back Lucas Digne, who does most of the creative work on the overlap on the left.
It is Villa the lowest scorers in the upper half of the table.
Rashford is expected to be asked to stay wide on the left and to record his full-back like the old days and the box to shoot. If Emery can unleash that Rashford, it will add a much needed weapon to Villa's Armory.
Pace still contains a blow
In the same way that Rashford has lost its spark, Villa has also lost their explosiveness of spring attacks on their opponents – an area where Rashford can help them thrive again.
Last season Villa was devastating on the countertop. Only three teams made more fast breaks than Emery's side and only three scored more goals from them than villas seven.
However, this period is Villa in the bottom half for fast breaks and only scored from one of them, Rogers' opener against Brighton in December. Everton and Leicester are the only party that have not scored from one.
During the 30-goal season of Rashford it was United who attacked with the fastest breaks and most of them scored and Rashford scored the player who scored most of them for his side.
The pace of Rashford could help them to restore that opposing threat.
The former United Man is still in the top 10 fastest Wingers in the Premier League and the fastest of all villas front men this season. Only central midfielder Amadou Onana has clocked a higher top speed among villa players.
The top speed of Rashford this season is 22 km / h, a mile per hour faster than McGinn and even faster than Ramsey. At that speed he would reach the penalty area from the half line at least half a second faster.
That doesn't sound much, but in the fine margins of the crazy Premier League even makes the smallest lead the biggest difference.
Perhaps that is the reason why Rashford chose to come in and train on his first day off in Villa. He knows that if he has to bring his career new life, he has to wake that old fire again.
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