Review - 84 IF Rashford

Last weekend witnessed one of the most anticipated match ups of the Premier League season as Liverpool visited Manchester United in the latest installment of an age old rivalry.  The fact that the match would also determine second place in the league brought added excitement and pressure to the occasion.  While most twenty year olds try to figure out how to cook supper on their own, Marcus Rashford was scoring two goals to lift Manchester United above Liverpool and firmly into second place.  This performance earned Rashford a MUCH anticipated upgrade on his PTG Autumn card and an 84 rated IF.  Rashford enters into a LM/LW/LF position, which normally sees a mixture of Martial, Sane, and Son as the Premier League top choices.  The question is whether or not he can surpass these names?

In order to figure out the value of Rashford I purchased him Wednesday evening to get a mixture of games from the Daily Knockout Tournament, Seasons, and FUT Champs.  The DKT reward of a PTG Vela was the perfect trial by fire opportunity to see if Rashford could stand up against the FUT heavyweights.  I used him as the right and left ST in a 4-2-2-2 (in game team below), with the Marksman chemistry style.  Rashford completed the following team:

EARLY DAYS

I tried to enter this review with a completely open mind.  I am aware of the abilities of Sane and Son in the LW position, likewise, I know that Martial’s price tag makes him a difficult comparison to live up to.  As Rashford was taking the place of Aubameyang in my squad I wasn’t expecting to see an increase in pace or shooting either.  What I immediately noticed that I didn’t expect was his size.  The man is a giant on the pitch.  I am not sure if it is the build, body type, or the way that he carries himself?  But immediately I felt like I had added a dimension of size and this directly translated to in-game success.  Diving into the review, I tried to focus on the 6 major areas with a rating out of 5.

PACE

The lad is obviously fast, but I wouldn’t call him quick.  Having used Aubameyang and 2POTM Salah I feel like I have played with a different level of pace compared to most players available.  Rashford did not meet these levels of quickness.  Rashford is more like a boulder teetering on the edge of a cliff, if you get him rolling then it is lights out.

RATING: 4.5/5

SHOOTING

The fact that Rashford was playing in the ST position put added scrutiny on his shooting.  Every chance missed was amplified and I felt myself wondering if I was jeopardizing games by playing a weaker player than I had on the bench.  But then I started to get a feeling for the type of player Rashford is.  Small cuts, turns, and skills were replaced with a simple turn and shoot mentality that turned into quite a decent goal return.  His 4 Star Weak Foot feels like it is a 4.9 and for some reason EA didn’t want to list him as a five.  As a long time FUT Manager I know each player and their preferred foot.  But I will be honest, I had to go and look Rashford up again on FUTBIN just to make sure that I hadn’t made a mistake.  As the video demonstrates I couldn’t miss with his left and even found myself moving to his left more often than not.   However, he still misses one too many chances in front of goal.

RATING: 4/5

PASSING

There is not a whole lot to say about Rashford’s passing.  He is not going to thread passes into tight spaces as a player with 90 passing stats can.  At the same time he is not going to “Bakayoko” a square ball ten feet behind your target and out of bounds.  He is a goal scorer, and for me, I don’t buy a hammer to drill holes.

RATING: 4/5

DRIBBLING

I feel like Rashford is Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes to dribbling.  At slower speeds Rashford is meticulous and composed like Doctor Jekyll; tight to the ball, big enough to shield opponents, strong enough to shake off would be tacklers, agile enough to tightly maneuver a corner and has a burst of pace to get a step to shoot.  At pace Rashford is as erratic and unpredictable as Mr. Hyde; sometimes he turns and cuts fine, other times it is like turning a cruise ship in shallow water.  There were times I would be dribbling and flick the joystick to gain some space and he would completely alter my touch to his liking.  While this worked in my favor a few times, for the most part it was frustrating to see chances pass by.

RATING: Doctor Jekyll 4/5  Mr. Hyde 2/5  =  3/5

DEFENDING

I would say this stat is irrelevant given his starting position in games.  However, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of times I picked off opponents passes, or caught a wingback taking a bit too long on the ball.  In all honesty this card felt more agile and fluid on defense then attacking and I scored a few goals from his work off of the ball. 

RATING: 2/5

PHYSICAL

Probably the most disappointing category for me.  When you see a six foot ST with the athleticism that Rashford possess in real life you would hope that it translates into in game, stats, it doesn’t.  As I previously mentioned he appears as a giant on the screen and I immediately felt his 77 Strength was a non-issue.  His 88 Stamina does allow him to be effective for 70-80 minutes, but beyond that I felt he was running in quicksand and as a ST this was disappointing.  Finally, his 67 Jumping (77 with Marksman) is likely the reason that he only scored a single wide open header for me.  It was as if he was wearing weighted shoes as he jumped.  The 86 Heading Accuracy would suggest that if he did get on the end of the ball he could be effective.  However, I honestly did not win a header in the box or on a clearance against opposing defenders. 

RATING: 3.5/5

FINAL SCORE 

RATING: 3.8/5

Removing the defensive rating and focusing on the attributes which complete a ST leaves Rashford with a very accurate 3.8 rating out of 5.  Before writing this article I thought about the games I played and right away my experiences suggested that Rashford is too good to be rated 3.5 out of 5, and not quite the complete 4.  By complete coincidence the numbers came out about perfect.  I will admit that Rashford brought elements to my team that Aubameyang does not and I really enjoyed the left footed strikes flying into the far top corner.  But is he worth the 100k price tag (as of writing) currently listed on the Xbox market? Unless you require an English winger for your squad, I would have to say no; it makes my fingers burn to say that you would be better off with Martial.  However, if you have the coins, patience, luck, and belief that Rashford could pull off one more IF performance before the end of the year; The 170k PTG is worth a shot in the dark.  Rashford could easily come off the bench for any FUT squad in the meant time and create havoc, chances, and goals.  The idea of a 2IF version of this card would be end game scary. Cheers for reading.

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