Marcus Rashford's numbers game at Manchester United boils down to three basic truths

Shortly after Jose Mourinho’s crib sheet of Marcus Rashford statistics hit Twitter timelines on Friday morning, there came a second raft of Rashford numbers; some supporting the Manchester United manager’s position, some not.

“No player currently aged under-21 has played more competitive minutes of club football for a Premier League team than Marcus Rashford (7,280) since his debut in February 2016,” Opta tweeted, lending credence to Mourinho, even if Rashford’s debut came under Louis van Gaal.

United’s official account, citing Opta, joined in. “Marcus Rashford has played 126 competitive games for United since his debut in February 2016, more than any other Premier League player,” the club proudly noted, again using the Van Gaal-era debut as a questionable starting point.

Those numbers would seem to support Mourinho’s argument that the debate around Rashford’s amount of playing time is “confused” and that the youngster is “not Dominic Solanke, not Ruben Loftus-Cheek, not Dominic Calvert-Lewin” – other young strikers struggling to establish themselves elsewhere.

Unsurprisingly, Rashford has more minutes to his name this season than all three of them – 121, to be precise. A look at last season’s numbers tells a slightly different story, though.

Loftus-Cheek, while on loan at Crystal Palace, managed 1,875 Premier League minutes during the 2017-18 season. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, another player name-dropped by Mourinho on Friday, played precisely the same number. Rashford, meanwhile, managed 1,807.

What’s more, only 497 of those minutes came after Alexis Sanchez’s arrival in January. Rashford has made just eight starts since the day the Chilean signed, one of which coincided with Sanchez’s debut, the FA Cup fourth round victory over Yeovil Town.

And while Rashford made 52 appearances in all competitions last season, missing just four of United’s 56 matches, the fact that he was either substituted on or off in 42 of those games undermines the idea that he is an integral part of Mourinho’s set-up.

Perhaps Mourinho simply has better options at his disposal? Rashford’s Premier League scoring rate last year – a goal every 258 minutes, slightly less than one every three games – was inferior to those of team-mates Anthony Martial (176), Romelu Lukaku (179) and Jesse Lingard (228).

Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck, two former United strikers, were hardly in contention for the Golden Boot last term yet in bit-part roles for West Ham United and Arsenal respectively, both produced better records than Rashford. Hernandez returned a goal every 193 minutes, Welbeck every 237.

Would the youngster’s rate have improved if he had been given ‘better quality’ minutes? His scoring across all competitions last season – a goal every 206 minutes – suggests so. We could go on and on, though. Ultimately, the numbers can be contorted and manipulated by Mourinho and his critics to fit any position.

An assessment of Rashford’s situation should therefore rest on a few, hopefully uncontroversial points.

Firstly, his prospects of regular playing time in his preferred position are currently slim, with Lukaku indisputably and deservedly Mourinho’s first-choice striker.

Secondly, Rashford’s hopes of establishing himself in his secondary position on the left wing have diminished since the signing of Sanchez – a signing that was far from necessary, one that threatened not only Rashford’s playing time but also Martial’s, but one United clearly felt would be a success regardless.

And thirdly, for a 20-year-old academy graduate of which little was expected, Rashford is ahead of schedule. He remains raw, his finishing needs particular work, but he has unquestionably come a long way already. If he still needs to establish himself at Old Trafford, time is on his side.

Revisit his breakthrough two-and-a-half years back and one of the most striking aspects is that he only needs one, fleeting chance to make a lasting impression. His opener against Midtylland is a first-time tap-in, so too his first Premier League goal three days later, so too his first England goal a few months on.

If Rashford can rediscover that useful knack of seizing opportunities as and when they arrive, no matter how brief they may be, we can all put our calculators away. He will have ended this interminable debate once and for all.