Bastian Schweinsteiger names the Manchester United star he ‘would love to see in a better team’
'He’s still the player who can decide the games, but he doesn’t show it too many times.'
Former Manchester United star Bastian Schweinsteiger says he ‘would love to see Marcus Rashford in a better team’, believing his ex-teammate still has untapped potential.
Rashford has spent his entire career at Old Trafford, enjoying incredible highs and extreme lows, as perfectly evidenced by his two seasons under Erik ten Hag.
In the last campaign he scored 30 and assisted 10, but has followed that up with just eight goals and five assists so far this term, while disciplinary issues have dominated headlines and earned stern criticism.
Some have suggested that the England international could benefit from leaving his boyhood club, which has come amid reports linking him with a £75million switch to PSG.
Schweinsteiger, who played alongside Rashford at Old Trafford when the forward broke into the first-team in 2016, stopped short of recommending a transfer, butadmitted: ‘I would love to see him in a better team, where he gets the balls in the right moment.
‘I would love to see that because in the years past, you don’t really see that, so if he would play for a different team, maybe he would also increase his level a little bit more.
‘He’s still the player who can decide the games, but he doesn’t show it too many times because maybe inside he’s a little bit frustrated.
‘First, he has to understand he can also be the example – you can handle frustration differently – but someone needs to tell him and speak with him. It has to come from him, that’s very important.
‘Sometimes you have these coaches who tell you, stay left, stay right, but you need to understand, if you play for Pep Guardiola, you need to understand what he wants and then you have to do it.
‘You cannot just go to someone and say, “Hey, run faster”, you need to help him, and he needs to understand why.’
Despite his status as one of the world’s best midfielders, Schweinsteiger was infamously frozen out of United by Jose Mourinho and would last less than two seasons at Old Trafford.
The Bayern Munich and Germany legend went onto express sadness that he didn’t get a chance to play more with the likes of Rashford and other high-profile Red Devils adding: ‘I call him [Paul Pogba] one of the best midfielders I played with.
‘You could see it when he was playing for the French national team. You could see the potential he had when he has the right team around him. I enjoyed playing with him so much.
‘Him, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], Wayne [Rooney] – that was so nice, we had the right pieces. It was all there, but [we] just needed to put the puzzle together.’
Asked what team he would have picked had he been the manager at the time time, he said: ‘David de Gea, [Antonio] Valencia, left Luke Shaw – you could play with [two of] Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, [Marcos] Rojo.
‘Midfield – Pogba, Schweinsteiger, [Michael] Carrick. Upfront, Rooney, Ibrahimović, Rashford. 100% [that team was good enough]. If you need long balls, put [Marouane] Fellaini – you can do that if you want.’
Bastian Schweinsteiger was speaking on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet.
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