Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford reveals an ambitious goal target ahead of new season
Rashford celebrated 30 goals for Manchester United last season - now he's provided his number for 2023-24
Marcus Rashford believes he should score even more goals in the upcoming season than he managed last term, despite hitting the highest total in his eight years as a professional.
The Manchester United forward scored 30 goals in all competitions during the 2022/23 season, a phenomenal return and comfortably the most prolific of his career.
The 25-year-old isn't content with stopping at 30 goals ahead of the new campaign, though. He wants more, and certainly believes he can better that record if he manages to keep fit.
“Before last season, I always aimed for 20 goals – a good benchmark for a winger," Rashford told Gary Neville on The Overlap.
"But this season, I’ve hit 30 – we have to try and push it now. Towards the end of the season, I was struggling with a few injuries, and I wasn’t quite at it – that’s when the goals started to dry up for a bit. If I can keep that side of it under taps, I feel like I can go on and get 35 or 40.”
In order to do so, Rashford recognises there are certain elements of his game that need improvement. Pointing to his heading and left foot, the England international believes if he works on bettering those parts, he could be performing his iconic celebration even more regularly.
“I think there's always elements I can add to my game and it’s important to work on your strengths. You want to get your weaknesses as good as they can get, but they are more often than not always going to be a little bit behind your strengths. Mine are my left foot and heading - I always want to work on them.
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“My heading is getting better, but I feel like I should score more because I out jump most people. If I'm in the position in the right areas in the box, I should be getting 7 to 10 headed goals a season – I feel like I can do that, and I'll be pushing to do that next year.
“For me, my left foot is just about confidence and when I'm confident I’ll score with it. When I’m not confident, it just never goes right on my left foot. If I'm feeling confident, strong, fit and healthy, if I get an opportunity on my left, I've got a good chance of scoring as long as I'm in the right areas. A lot of it is about just getting into the right areas because my striker coach always gives me information on getting in across the front post, or on the shoulders of the defenders and stuff like that."
Marcus Rashford was speaking on The Overlap, in partnership with Sky Bet.
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Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.