Jose Mourinho reveals why Marcus Rashford has been taking set-pieces recently

Manchester United’s 2-0 victory over Chelsea was certainly one of our most impressive performances in recent years, with the Red Devils playing sublime for 90 minutes. Jose Mourinho certainly would have been thrilled to get one over on his former employers.

There was one thing that was a bit bizarre, though. Marcus Rashford was on set-piece duty, despite the likes of Paul Pogba being on the field of play. Instead of being in the box to get on the end of free-kicks and corners, our 19-year-old striker was taking them.

Jose was asked why rashford was put on free-kick duties in that game, and the Manchester United manager responded:

“Marcus is trustable,” the manager told Manchester United’s official TV channel. “Even for the second goal, his free-kick was really high, impossible to score from a header because it was to what we call the third post – not the first or second post. But he’s always tense, he’s always fast, and you can always trust that [he will make] strong contact with the ball. “

“The ball always goes with speed with him. With some other guys, the ball goes in the right spot but slower. Even if you win the duel in the air, it can be really difficult to score, so in this moment Marcus is one of the boys we trust. Because he’s so young, he’s able to keep developing that day after day; he’s always with one of the assistant coaches trying to make it even better.”

You really do get the impression that Mourinho absolutely adores Marcus Rashford’s all-round game. The 19-year-old has been a mainstay in the starting line-up over the last couple of months – despite not scoring a whole lot. That tells you all you need to know about how supremely talented the young forward is.

I guess I’d much prefer to see someone else taking our free-kicks and the like, but our Portuguese coach is paid an awful lot of money to make these kind of decisions so I’d take his opinion over mine!

We’ve always been a side known for producing and nurturing young talents, and Marcus Rashford is definitely one of the best I’ve seen down the years. The frightening thing is that he’s only going to get better, and as time goes on we could have a real star on our hands.