Marcus Rashford has shown he is evolving, he shouldn’t be a victim of United’s lack of progression

Manchester United is a club so used to making bad decisions that now they seem to be afraid of making good decisions. So Mauricio Pochettino remains on the market and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign will continue for the time being.

What players like Marcus Rashford need to do now is make sure they don’t become victims of United’s deadlock. The United and England striker is 23 at the end of the month, so he has time on his side. However, if you are to make the transition from a good footballer to an excellent one, that process must not be allowed to slow down.

Maturity and intelligence are not problems. His response to receiving an MBE over the weekend was to remind the government that they still have a lot of work to do to combat child poverty. It was an emphatic and timely message.

Marcus Rashford has shown social conscience with his efforts to combat child poverty

But in the field, he still has something to do. And in clubs that lose their way, things can start to get in the way.

That may seem like an odd statement given that Rashford is a regular starter for United and England. But as club and international teammates such as Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard have shown, footballers must keep moving forward so others don’t pass them.

With this in mind, I worried about Rashford during the short summer break. With United apparently destined to buy Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund, it seemed likely that Rashford would face a threat to his place in United’s top three. One could argue that that would have been good. Similarly, it may have been found outside the team.

For reasons best known to United’s recruiting team, the deal with Sancho fell through and Rashford remains front and center of United’s hopes alongside Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood. Now you need to make sure you’re in the right place to resist that threat when it inevitably comes up again next summer.

Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho remains a long-term goal for Manchester United

It is helpful that Rashford now knows his best position. He is not a center forward, despite playing for United at times, because he is not a completely natural scorer.

At United, it works best to the left of a front three. Against Brighton, he scored a sublime goal cutting from that side. It was a goal indicative of his recent development and suggesting that there is no reason why he cannot improve on his goal average of one in three games.

Greenwood, happier on the right side, is what can be called a generational talent. The teenager is arguably the most exciting striker England has produced for a decade or more. Rashford does not have that exceptional degree of skill and if he is going to make the leap to the next stage then he will need the best training.

Mason Greenwood is off to a great start to his Man United career scoring 19 goals last season

At United, life sometimes seems too easy for the players. There are too many on Solskjaer’s team who don’t play consistently. Coincidence? Unlikely.

With this in mind, it is pertinent to suggest that while Rashford would not currently make the Manchester City or Liverpool teams, he might as well do so if he had a couple of years working with Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp behind him.

Young players must take responsibility for their own direction of travel, but they must also be guided.

Rashford is hardly at a professional crossroads, but it would be a shame if his potential were stifled by another season of meandering blindly at the country’s biggest soccer club.