Online Reporter
The 28-year-old returned to United this summer following a consecutive loan spells with Aston Villa and Barcelona.
Despite being heavily linked with a permanent move ahead of the 2026/27 campaign, Rashford has been training with the Red Devils and made his first Man Utd appearance in 20 months at the weekend.
Rashford played 29 minutes in a 4-2 defeat to AC Milan – the team now managed by ex-United boss Ruben Amorim – but struggled to get into the game.
Club legend Rooney has now urged him to improve his body language so that he can get the fans excited again.
Speaking on the first episode of Stick to United – a podcast-style show that has been created as part of The Overlap’s new merger with The United Stand and partnership with Disney+ – he explained: “It’s such a strange one with Marcus because we know he’s got the ability, he’s shown that.
“For me, has he got the hunger? Does he want to play for Man Utd?
“If he wants to play for Man Utd, the first thing he has to do… I’ve been there in 2010 when I asked to leave the football club, there’s a stage where you have to rebuild.
“You have to build a relationship with the fans and the easiest way to do that is to work hard and body language.
“It’s the easiest way to do that because you could have a bad game, you could give the ball away, you could make mistakes, but if the fans see you working hard and putting a shift in for the team they’ll accept that to a certain point.
“Marcus’ body language, even when he came on, his body language wasn’t great.
“So it might be something he has to work on. He might have to work with someone to make his body language look better.”
Rooney argued that if Rashford were to find form again at Old Trafford, he could go on to break his 253-goal record and become Man Utd’s all-time top scorer. The England international’s current total stands at 138 – but Rooney insists he is the only player that could achieve the feat.
He added: “I think his work rate has to improve. But if he wants to be at the football club, he just needs to knuckle down.
“He’s a young lad, he’s from Manchester… he’s the one player who can go and get my goalscoring record.
“I don’t want want to see Marcus Rashford doing well at Aston Villa or doing well at Barcelona, I want to see him doing well at Man Utd and scoring goals for Man Utd.
“But that means he just needs to get his head down, work his socks off and be more positive, play with a smile on his face.
“When he gets the ball – it happened a few times the other day where he gets the ball and stands the defenders up and just knocks it back inside.
“This is what I said to him a couple of years ago – when you get the ball and you’ve got a full-back one-v-one, touch, knock it past them and run.
“You don’t have to do stepovers, you don’t have to slow it down because the best thing the defender can do is put a slide tackle in because it’s very rare that one of the full-backs is as quick as you. You might get a corner or throw-in, you might get a free kick in a dangerous area, you might win a penalty.
“Be positive, it gets the crowd up, it gets the fans singing, they’re behind you.
“And that’s what the fans want to see – entertaining players, being positive.”
Rooney also suggested that Rashford should be more like Bruno Fernandes in the way he conducts himself on the pitch and the passion he shows. – Sun
