Manchester United’s teen sensation Marcus Rashford said he hopes fellow striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will extend his contract with the club beyond this season, since he and other younger players have learnt a lot playing alongside the experienced Swede. The 35-year-old Ibrahomovic’s one-year contract with United expires at the end of this season and, while the club wants him to stay on, he hasn’t confirmed his plans so far.
“[Ibrahimovic’s] influence on the younger players, especially, is fantastic,” Rashford told The Daily Telegraph in an interview. “We want that to continue because he is making us into better players. Now, when I go to the left or right, I see it differently to how I pictured it last season. They are things I didn’t have naturally inside me. I didn’t feel uncomfortable in the wide role, but when something is different it takes a while to get used to it. For me the development has been going great all the way through. Next season I think I will have come across most situations that are going to occur.”
Ibrahimovic was rested for Manchester United’s crucial match against table toppers Chelsea 10 days ago, and his centre-forward position was given to Rashford, who had been playing on the flank throughout the season. The 19-year-old responded with a goal in a morale-boosting 2-0 win for his team.
Ibrahimovic suffered a knee injury in United’s next game, the Europa League quarter-final against Anderlecht last week, which means Rashford is likely to be used in the centre-forward position a lot more till the end of the season. The Englishman is confident he can live up to the challenge thanks to what he has learnt from Ibrahimovic, which was evident when he scored a vital extra-time winner to send United to the Europa League semi-finals. “You will see the benefits in years to come,” Rashford said. “What I have learnt from him is irreplaceable.”
Even though Rashford is a striker by nature, he reveres wingers who transformed into forwards, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, and Neymar. “You look at all the strikers in the world now, I can only think of two, three who are No 9s – [Harry] Kane, [Robert] Lewandowski, [Luis] Suárez,” he said. “Aguero? You could play him deeper as a No 10. The qualities a striker needs now are different to what they used to be. When you look in the first team here and there are players who have won 15, 20 trophies, you want to try and live up to that and even exceed what they have done.”