Man United's Rashford Insists He, Lukaku Can Fill Void Left by Zlatan, Rooney
Manchester United youngster Marcus Rashford has insisted that he and new signing Romelu Lukaku can fill the void left by the departing Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror, the forward was strong in his belief that the two forwards could soften the blow of the club losing the two legendary scorers.
Said Rashford: "It's obviously going to be different [without Rooney and Ibrahimovic] but there was a time when they weren't the people they were. We have to change and develop to become what they were.
Elaborating on his relationship with long time captain Rooney, the 19-year-old said: "Wayne just let me get on with it. If something was going a bit out of line he definitely would have stepped in knowing him as a person.
"I don't think he needed to. He was always there to give me advice if I needed some. Losing that type of character is difficult but it's football, we have to move on."
Image by Adam Samuel
Following his spectacular final six months of the 2015/16 season, Rashford experienced something of a slump last season, scoring only 11 goals in 53 appearances, which included a three-month drought in the middle of the campaign as he was shifted wide to accommodate Ibrahimovic.
But the England international clearly feels that the ups and downs of his first full season in the first team setup will be valuable in his long-term development, saying: "It was a different experience. I experienced things I hadn't experienced the year before, but it puts you in good stead for the future.
"It impacts on you quite a lot, how you recover from that. That's what I was looking at. It's not the be-all and end-all if I'm not scoring goals. This season I'll put more pressure on myself to score more and take on more responsibility.
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He continued: "I think last season the stats are what brought things down. They're the things you want to try to bring up.
"But they're not the things I was concentrating solely on last season. Season by season I have different aims and responsibilities to the team.
"This year, hopefully I'll take more responsibility on. That's the aim.''
