How Marcus Rashford's super sub display saved the day for Manchester United against Leicester

By Sam Leveridge

Manchester United faced up against Leicester City knowing that the Foxes would provide a much tougher team to break down than West Ham or Swansea, who had both been blown away by the power and pace that United possessed in attack. That proved to be the case, at least until the introduction of Marcus Rashford in the 67th minute.

Rashford had been dropped in favour of Anthony Martial after the Frenchman had come on as a substitute to score in each of his first two Premier League apperances of the season, and Rashford followed suit. It took just three minutes for the youngster to get his name on the scoresheet.

Rashford peeled off of his marker to find half a yard of space in the crowded penalty box from Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s corner and then coolly slotted the ball into the roof of the net leaving the impressive Kasper Schmeichel with no chance of keeping his clean sheet.

There was more than just a goal to his game though, as Rashford was also named WhoScored’s man of the match based on his stats. Despite playing just 23 minutes, he managed two key passes, only surpassed by Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Anthony Martial. His creativity created a number of chances as the game became stretched later on.

That suited Rashford, who used his pace against tired legs to really pounce and burst forwards against a Leicester defence who had lost the protection of a midfield who were now on the look-out for an equaliser.

Rashford will have felt frustrated to have lost his spot in the starting line-up, particularly after a good display in difficult circumstances at Swansea last weekend. After he changed the game on Saturday evening, there is little more that he could have done to convince Jose Mourinho that he deserves to be reinstated against Stoke next weekend.