Marcus Rashford 'TURNED IT ON' for Barcelona in the second half 🔥 | ESPN FC

Hello, welcome to Friday's ESPN FC Live. Plenty going on this week to look back on. We're going to start after the Manchester derby. Now United went into the game against City on the back of two good results against their City rivals last season. It was a come from behind victory and a goalless draw. So hopes were high that United could upset the apple cart again. 19 minutes later on the back of a 3-0 defeat and a lot of criticism, especially aimed at Ruben Amorim who afterwards came out and said I'm not changing this system for nobody. Well he might not have a choice very soon because he might not be there. Here's how ESPN FC TV reacted to Amorim and United's defeat. And it's a bit like this conversation where you're thinking what can we ask Mark that's different? What can we discuss that's different? And I repeat he's the least flexible manager managing at elite level. Maybe that's ever managed in the game. Certainly in recent years. Every single manager tinkers a little bit, makes some subtle changes if need be. If need be. And if you're doing the same thing week in week out twice a week and getting the same results and yet you keep going back to the well and it's just, you know, you're pulling up the same result. It's just absolutely bonkers. On top of that, he is right, you know, the Agathis of this world and there are others that have just been absolutely hopeless. But you have to, you have to figure a way how, right, if Casemiro hasn't got the legs to get around and Agathis has been hopeless and Bruno Fernandes, I really want to get him a bit further forward. When you have a weak midfield like that, you cannot have three attacking players. You cannot. When your midfield is weak and your defence is suspect, but particularly in the midfield, you can't have Acuña, who didn't play, you can't have Ahmad and then Bueno in front of that midfield. You can only have, I'm afraid, when you're as poor as they are, you can only have one because you need to have an extra body in the middle of the park. Now, as a defensive player or certainly a more natural central midfielder, that's what a normal manager would do. He would stem that flow until such time that he could go back to this. Do you know what I'm saying? If I'm in the midfield, if I'm playing, and we had this at Celtic at one point, Paul Lambert and from West Ham, two super talented players playing behind the striker, but if you put the old band on them to measure their kilometres after the game, it's probably about half the rest. We used to get hoarse when we played the better teams. We were okay against the weaker opposition, but when we went out and played in Europe at Lyon and other teams like that, we got a toasting in the middle of the park, and that's what's happening at Man United. They have a weak midfield, but it's weakened even more by having Bruno Fernandes playing deeper and having two attacking players, and trust me, this is all on Ruben Amorim because he knows this, but yet he continues in this stubborn attitude of doing the same thing. I honestly think he's a couple of games away from A, the players throwing him under the bus with all these leaks because we know it's going to happen, or B, any of us having to give him a single ticket back to Portugal because he's out his depth. Do you think he cares? He should. I feel like he's at a stage where he's like, I'm not changing, sack me if you want, please get me out of here. To that point, I think he should, and while it might have worked in Portugal and he had success with it, including in the Champions League, now it's a bigger stage and it's a bigger ask, and now you're truly being tested as a and a test that he's simply failing, and now to Craig's point, he's not the first manager that says, I'm going to stick to my guns regardless, but it's never ended well. The most recent that comes to mind is Postakoglu, and we see how that finished with him, and albeit, at least he was true to his word in winning Silverware in his second season. Now, Ruben Amorim kind of has rolled out this line or this defense of his inflexibility since he's arrived. Now, it's one thing you arrive in October, November, whatever it is, you have a January transfer window, but then you have a summer transfer window, and Manchester United spent. And you have summer training as well because he always said, I didn't have time. And you have summer training, to your point. Now, now you're truly being judged on how good a manager you are. It was easy to excuse or accept when it wasn't your team. You didn't have the pieces. You've had the opportunity now to build a squad around your, the way you play, the way that you insist on playing. You've had the opportunity to work with these players around the way you insist on playing. And now to have a worse start to the season than Ten Hag did, and we show how that ended up for him. I think he's asking for a lot of trouble. I think Pastor Kogler is a good example because, and we'll see how he gets on at Forest, but I have concerns about him trying to change the Forest way of playing, which has been successful for them, been stubborn, and they're going to be too open and get dragged down towards a relegation dogfight. This kind of start we're seeing here is just unacceptable as a Manchester United manager or any other manager of an elite level club. But it goes back to Shaq's point. What was good for the Goose in Japan, in the G League, and in Scotland at Celtic and the Scottish Premiership is not good necessarily in England. In the Premier League, where the teams are better, the teams are faster, the teams are stronger, and when you cough the ball up, they punish you. When you're coughing the ball up in Japan, with all respect, and you're coughing the ball up in Scotland against Hearts and Hibs, you know, and Motherwell, the chances are you're going to get away with it, you know, eight times out of ten. What happened with Posta Cogbu was, teams figured it out, they were happy for Spurs to go gung-ho, and when they coughed it up, they got punished, and he refused to change, and he sacked. And he feels he shouldn't have been sacked in his comments lately from his press conference, but he was sacked, and he was rightly sacked for finishing because his league form was terrible. This guy's on the same boat. There's absolutely no doubt about it. You know, I think he's a couple of defeats away from Ineos having to say goodbye, and that's just another embarrassment after another embarrassment, particularly with the way they dealt, and you know I've said this before, at this moment in time, they are not running the football side of it any better than the Glazers, right, and we can talk about taking dividends out and running the club, and that's not my scenario. They are not running the football department any better at the moment, even with these new appointments, than the Glazers, and the Eric Tenhak situation and how they crumbled after winning the FA Cup was a total embarrassment for them, and I think what, and Augie might correct me on this, but I think they're sitting there with their eyes closed behind the sofa just hoping that this guy can somehow get the results, because then so they don't have to do what they did before, and admit they've made another mistake. See, this is fascinating, because we saw the graphic there that showed you that Ruben Amorim has a 36% win percentage. That's dreadful at any club, never mind at Manchester United. So let's go back a little bit. Eric Tenhak, what was his win percentage? Well, it was 55%, and he was deemed not good enough for Manchester United. It wasn't working. Let's bring somebody else in. You've brought someone in who's got a 19% win ratio worse than the man you've just fired. So how much of this is on Amorim? The answer is a lot, but how much of this is, as Craig is talking about, on the people who have decided that Amorim was the man? Oh, shiny new toy, doing well at sporting. They're just as much to blame. So do Manchester United fans trust whoever is going to be responsible and will have the final say to decide who will replace Ruben Amorim? That's the problem. They're just going to go and get someone else if they decide to get rid of Ruben Amorim, and guess what? It's going to be the same nonsense that Manchester United fans have had to watch, because you take that team that United have got, and you look at the players that they've got, and you build a formation that suits those players, and you might have something, but not when you've got a stubborn manager that prefers a 3-4-3 that clearly isn't working. And meanwhile, ex-Manchester United players, or Manchester United players out on loan. Scott McTominay's done great over in Napoli. Jadon Sancho's gone, but what about Marcus Rashford? He goes to Barcelona. Look what he's done, two goals against Newcastle. Barca winning by two goals to one. It wasn't quite a repeat for Newcastle fans of the game from 1996 when Tino Aspria got a hat-trick. There were one or two opportunities when Anthony Gordon had scored to make it 2-1 that got Newcastle that opportunity to potentially get a draw, but it's another Manchester United old boy, Marcus Rashford, that leaves the football club and goes on to do better things because he's no longer at Old Trafford. Back to the EFCTV gang to talk about Newcastle against Barcelona and Marcus Rashford. not a lot at United and a little bit at Villa. So he has this magnificent chance, albeit he was in tonight because Lamine Yamal is injured, so getting game time from will be difficult, you would imagine, but not if he's doing that. That's going to say to Hansi Flick, you know, give me more game time. This is what I can do for you. He was brilliant. He looked sharp on that left-hand side. He looked pacey. He was direct. Obviously, his two goals are the talking point. The second one was just absolutely outstanding, but that's what Marcus Rashford has to do if he wants to earn a move to Barcelona full-time, which I don't know if it's going to happen, or if he wants to earn a move somewhere else after his loan spell. He's back in the shop window and the more performances he puts on like this, the better chance he has of getting away from Manchester United, which ultimately United want and ultimately Marcus Rashford wants. So a brilliant, brilliant performance from Rashford. And I've got to say, from Barcelona in the second half, they really controlled and dominated the game, not just with possession, but with their closing down. They really closed down in threes and fours and pressed the ball in Newcastle's half and they struggled, Newcastle that is, to retain possession and that was a big problem for them in the second 45. A really positive display from Rashford tonight, absolutely paying off that faith that his coach has shown in him, Luis. Yeah, and we've been talking a lot lately about him, that he could show what he's good at, that strength, that speed, that power that he's got. He's good at good finishing, but in tight spaces he was going to have trouble. We saw in the first game against Mallorca, he was trying to find his gaps and trying to drop it, asking the ball, and he was struggling a little bit. And today I think we can see a little bit, we've seen a glimpse of what Rashford can provide to this Barcelona. When he's on, with the space at the back, Trippier couldn't handle the speed, the power, that direction, he doesn't hesitate any time to try and face you on 1v1 because he knows that he's got ability, he's got skills, and of course that fantastic touch. I like this understanding with Rafinha, we saw it on one assist in the last game, today he tried a couple of times, and this understanding between him and Rafinha is something that we are going to see quite often. He's got that ability to see the runs on opponents, on teammates, and today he tried a couple of times again to the diagonals, so Rafinha is something that for Barcelona is also new, those fantastic transitions going forward. And now he's just got to keep it up Don, like Craig was saying at Barcelona. Correct, I think my takeaway from looking at Marcus Rashford tonight, take away the two goals, I think he looked physically fit, it looks like he's muscled up at the same time, so now he's at a proper football club where the demands are so high, the coach, the players inside that dressing room will put that on Marcus Rashford. I think it's never been in question about Rashford's ability, he can do it on the football pitch, but what's his lifestyle like away from the football pitch, that never really gets him fully fit consistently on the pitch. Now I think at Barcelona he's got a brilliant opportunity, as I said because the demands are so high, and he has to be on it, he has to be fit, and he has to live his lifestyle right, because you see the performance in the second half, he was quiet in the first half, it was a tight game for him, Trippier handled him quite well, but the second half he turned it on, the first header was immaculate, the second goal was a wonderful strike, I've seen him do that for Man United against Man City in a Manchester derby a few years ago, thunderbolt of a shot, and then he grew in confidence, he played with a bit of swagger, and that's what you want to see from him. Is there anything that Hansi Flick will be looking at in this game, knowing that Newcastle were getting their chances, and that late on there was that goal as well? Well Gerard Martins, I don't think he's Hansi Flick's favourite player, and he was a weak link a little bit in the first half on the left-hand side, Alanga had the sort of pace on him, they played the high line again, they caught Newcastle offside quite a few times, so that worked better than it did against Raya Vallecano a couple of weeks ago when it was horrible, but again going back to Marcus Rashford, the problem he's got is game time, you know, they're coming in and coming out, you know, Laminia Malcom's back, Rafinha plays, Lewandowski, that's the preferred threesome, you're sitting on the bench, you're That's the difficulty, is performing like that when you're not getting consistent game time, but I thought Barcelona in the second half really flexed their muscles. What did you make of Barca tonight, Luis? I like it very much, honestly, going to Newcastle is not an easy game, the intensity and the physicality of the team, it was proven the first 45 minutes where they were pressing man-to-man the whole pitch and that's not easy for Barcelona because you cannot even have time to recede, but they were adapted, they managed those 15-20 minutes where Newcastle was having the best chances and it's like Ray is talking about in the second half where they found the chance to score the first one and then the second one and they controlled the game, they understood that it's not about trying to get the third one, it's about having the ball and putting pressure on Newcastle that made a massive, huge effort in the first 45 or first 60 minutes and they get a little bit tired, so it was more difficult for them to chase the ball, so it's a very mature team, let's not forget it's not La Minha Maldera, it's always a third team, probably we're going to talk a lot when he is not there, but it's a Barcelona that is ready to face the big challenges of the championship, is ready to face physical teams, technical teams and tactical teams, so I think that Barcelona is ready to challenge for the trophy. It says a lot about Barcelona's strength and depth, no La Minha Maldera on international duty with Spain, so you can bring in Marcus Rashford and ultimately it's his two goals that earn a big win for Barcelona on townside. Now, after every ESPN FC show, nightly on ESPN Plus and the ESPN app in the United States, we have ESPN FC Extra Time and it gives you the opportunity to send in your questions, just have a look at the Twitter account of ESPN FC and once they put out the tweet asking for any questions, you can get in touch and many, many people do. Let's find out a selection of some of the questions this week and that Manchester United theme in Rashford certainly continues. and careers are not made in one game and careers are not resurrected on one game, but it certainly helps. But it was good to see, you know, good to see players who are maybe better than they've been showing, certainly at Manchester United and we know Rashford is a good player, but we also know, for example, Rasmus Hoyland struggled at Manchester United, so it's good to see players getting out there and gaining confidence, but again, you know, Marcus Rashford is going to produce that kind of stuff quite a lot for Hansi Flick, because there's a little guy called Lamin Yamal on the sidelines injured and he's pretty good. Yeah, he's not bad at all, is he? Speaking of Barcelona, Luis, next question, Pedry and De Jong were excellent again today, both in possession and in regaining possession, what else can be said about how well they control games for Barcelona? Yeah, I agree 100%. I think they've been brilliant and why Barcelona managed to get the result today. In the moments where teams panic, they just feel that they are in the normal space and they are so comfortable on the ball. They play with everyone who are around them, they are trying to find them because they know that the ball with them is safe and I think that today they were incredible. Don't forget that Frankie Lloyd comes from a lung injury, hasn't been involved in the games and today he just played like a normal guy and he was one of the best players into the match. So, yeah, it's very difficult to continue praising them because we talked a lot about Pedry, about Frankie Lloyd, how good they are and this season is going to be huge if they want to do a good paper once again in the Champions League, that again is going to be for them the main target. La Liga, of course, is going to be there, but I think that in their heads is to try to arrive late and far on the competition. So, these two players are going to be crucial in Clínica for this Barcelona and to achieve those targets or objectives. You know what, because this is how my brain works. It's not the biggest brain, but you know, there's a little brain in there. Did you get up for this show, Luis, or did you stay up for this show? What do you mean? No, no, I didn't sleep today. I just went through to watch the game of Barcelona and then Manchester City and then we end the show. That's what you mean? Yeah, your brain works there, Craig. You know, I was thinking, watching Luis there, I'm thinking he's missed the trick. He should do this in his bed, just all tucked up, get into bed, get the covers, do the last 10 minutes and then as soon as he's done, he's asleep. That's what I'm thinking. If I'm in Malaysia, if I'm anywhere really, but it's not in the studio here, there's a high possibility of an internet problem. He's super professional. You know what I mean? Pull the old wire out. Oh, sorry, lads. He'll be off to the gym next to put everyone to shame. Scandalous. Scandalous. Oh, I'm telling you. That's how his brain works. I used to do, when I lived in England, I used to do this show, the show used to be, it was called Press Pass then. When I used to do that, which I did quite regularly, every now and again I'd go down to the IMG and the camera, you know, there was a problem and, you know, I'd have a little half-hearted effort at getting the wires in and then I would ask, well, it was determined on whether I was getting paid or not. So if I was told I was still getting paid, even if, well, you know. You're breaking up, guys. That's terrible. Louise, Louise is just a proper pro at half six in the morning, you're pulling cables out at 11 o'clock at night. Pretty much. And admitting it, that it was for this company live on air. I wasn't pulling cables out. It wasn't ESPN. I'm not a technician. Who do you want alongside you in the trenches? Louise or Craig Burley? You can answer that. I've got my own thoughts about that one. What a week of Champions League action it's been. All right, Caira Almaty were thumped in Portugal, but someone else who many people thought would be the whipping boys, Carabao, well, they were 2-0 down in Portugal against Benfica. Then they came back and they won by three goals to two. What about the game in Turin? Juventus, 4-2 down against Borussia Dortmund in stoppage time and still managed to score twice and to earn a four-all draw and to get a point. And that game at Anfield, my goodness. Liverpool 2-0 up early in cruising. And then a brilliant second half display from Atletico Madrid. Marcos Urienti scoring a couple of goals. And they thought they were headed back to the Metropolitano with a point. Sergio Van Dijk had other ideas as Liverpool scored very late in stoppage time to win by three goals to two. Let's find out what the panel thought of that one. I know Norwegian strikers. I know we have one on the show today. They usually put the ball in the back of the net when it comes to those sort of headers. Sorlak did not. Yes, well, Sorlak couldn't put it away. But we do have Jan Agafiortov and he knows exactly how to put it away. We also have Alex Kirkland joining us for this one because we are going to be talking about what this means for Atletico Madrid. But first of all, let's start with the winners tonight at Liverpool. Once again, the late, late show. The late, late show or the other way to look at it, it's just a manic team. And this is what they have been. I guess we should not be surprised, but when they look so dominant at 2-0, you never thought that Atletico Madrid were ever going to come back in this match and make it 2-2. It was all Liverpool, all the time, all possession, all the chances. It felt like two was going to become four very quickly. And yet Liverpool does what they have done over the course of this season. Defensively, they allow things to happen and things to develop for other teams. In the first goal by Marco Llorente, Raspadori is allowed to run freely in behind the back line of Liverpool. So it's like just look at Raspadori and just points at him as if somebody is going to pick him up just because he pointed at him. Nobody ran with Raspadori. Eventually, Marco Llorente finds the shot on goal. It gets a deflection. There's a little help and now it's 2-1 and now we got unnecessary stress. Get into the second half and it's a tapping for Mohamed Salah. You make it 3-1 and now there is no more stress. He misses that chance and somehow you got the sense that Liverpool were about to once again let a two goal lead go. And when they tie the game up atético Madrid, what is the first thing that I told you while we were watching the game? Liverpool is about to win this. Yes, you did. And it's just the feeling you have with this team that there is a they have flaws. They have difficulties defensively. They have issues through the midfield and tracking runners. But when it comes to scoring late goals, now they seem to believe that they're always going to do it. And when you have a team as talented as Liverpool are and you believe that you're going to do these things, there's a way that you're going to find every single game to go and get the winner. And Virgil van Dijk was able to do just that for this team. Yeah, it's a bit chaotic. It's not 100% comfortable for Liverpool. As you can see, they do have a habit so far this season of leaving it late. Yeah, and the word that we use is chaos. Is this something that you put down to the fact that they've signed a lot of new players? We know how much money they've spent, and it's just going to take time for them to all get on the same page? Well, interesting question, because I think it depends which way you go in. I mean, if you want to do friends in football these days, you go out and say on some social media to say that it's a great skill to have to always decide a game at the end, as Liverpool has done. Because it is a skill. It's a mentality thing. If Ali thinks they will win it, imagine if your 11 players out there think they will do it. That is a great, great strength. On the other hand, three times now, they were 2-0 up, and teams are coming back on them. But still, they have the skill to win the games. Yes, every other fans of every other team will say this is not sustainability in that way of doing it. But on the other hand, I mean, imagine when they start playing well. Imagine when they start not conceding so many chances. Imagine when they don't give leads away. So I think that if this is the biggest problem you have, I think there's a lot of other clubs in the world that would love to have the problems that Liverpool have at the moment. I would take it the other way. Yes, there could be something to find a balance in the team. I thought Abir was a bit better today. Salah was back. He wasn't there against Burnley in the last game. But still, you have the strength and the mental kind of monster kind of skill to come back. So yes, we can go negative, but I go positive. This is Liverpool showing that they are the reigning champion. And yes, to annoy everybody else, just imagine when Liverpool start playing well as well and stop conceding those chances. One of Jan's former clubs, Eintracht Frankfurt, with a fantastic 5-1 win over Galatasaray in the Champions League on Thursday. We will leave you today with a little taster of a full episode that you can now find on the ESPN FC YouTube channel called Discover a Club featuring Eintracht Frankfurt. Bye for now. Let's go. Come with me. In Frankfurt, you don't just support a club. You inherit it. You live it. You pass it on. And this is the most important thing in Frankfurt. When you put on the jersey with the eagle, you go out. This is 100 percent.