I remember when I knew this guy (I am not in contact with him now). He was a nice enough guy, in his 50s when I met him, but a very casual United fan from near Glasgow. I knew him from 2015 to 2021. He watched the odd game. I remember when Rashford made his debut this guy was raving about him, and I was telling him to calm down as I know that United youngsters often fall by the wayside after a good start.
This guy is the type who would always talk about Ronaldo being much better than Messi, he loved Mbappe when he found out about him. He was very much a guy who loved pace merchant, direct, run with your head down type players. I wouldn't be surprised if he's currently raving about Garnacho (haven't talked to him since before Garnacho made his debut). He just loved that type of speed merchant player and didn't seem to have much time for the understated midfielders. I never really valued the guy's opinion on football, and his overrating of Rashford (and the other opinion above regarding Messi and Ronaldo) and sheer bias to everything United were partly why.
Anyway, Rashford is finished. He's never gonna become an intelligent player - he's 27 almost and still has a low football IQ and makes bad decisions constantly. Even in his best ever season, his general play was as average as ever. And his really good goalscoring form lasted from post World Cup til he tailed off in April. And he scored 17 goals I believe in the league - outscored by Toney and Wilson and boosted his stats against smaller teams in the EL.
He never approached that sort of goalscoring form before, and never will again. He has his uses, but he's generally a limited player who relies on pace and space, hence him scoring a lot against big teams who play with a high line, and disappointing against lesser teams who defend in a low block. A tactical quirk.
I never ever thought he was that good. He's capable of doing something you think he never could do, like the beautiful crossfield pass in the cup final leading to the second goal, or the odd dribble where he shows great feet, but he is very very inconsistent with it.
Like I say with the stats from the season where people went overboard about him, context is everything in football. Ultimately he scored 17 I believe in the league, which isn't really special and definitely didn't warrant the insane hype around him. People also went mad about him for scoring the 5th goal of 6 (or something) against Iran, and two goals against the mighty Wales. He's England and Man U's golden boy and a PR and press favourite, with sycophantic journalists like Henry Winter on his payroll, so he's always gonna be overrated if he does anything decent.
He and Fernandes are two of the most overrated players I have seen in a long while. They're both massive problems for United as the counter-attack style of football is all they can play, and what is sabotaging United and what they actively need to get away from.
That club they're at has a lot of overrated players, though.
Edit: I just counted up. In the league, he scored four goals before the World Cup (including two against Arsenal and one against Liverpool, that tactical quirk again as I remember at least two being him running in behind those teams' high lines). From 27 December 2022 to 19 February 2023, he scored 10 league goals in 10 league games. Then United failed to score for three games, including the massacre at Anfield. He then scored three goals in the last 14 games (I assume he played in them all or most of them, 32 appearances in the league and 3 as sub, so he missed three league games all season). He also played against Barca during that December to March period, where he played well against you lot. But ultimately it was a Europa League round of 32 game.
So again, this 'great season' constituted 10 of his 17 league goals in just under two months of play where he scored most weeks (a purple patch player if ever I have saw one), generally when plenty of players who played more at the World Cup than he did were probably tired. Three goals in the last fourteen games from early March to end of May (he played most of them I guess, if not all). Take into account him padding stats mostly against mediocre teams in the cups all season, and his poor form before Xmas and post February, and his poor general play (I watched all their games and he was often anonymous but then finished a chance) as well as poorness in the cup final - it doesn't look so special anymore, does it?
One of the most overrated individual seasons I have ever watched, from one of the most overrated players I have ever watched, who can rival Cristiano Ronaldo in selling himself to muppets via great PR. No surprise to me at all he fell apart after it, because it was overhyped to begin with.