Marcus Rashford has revealed he has set his sights on breaking Wayne Rooney’s all-time Manchester United goal record after committing his future to the club.
Rashford has scored 123 goals in 359 games since coming through the Man United academy to establish himself as one of the stars of the team.
Having put pen to paper on a new five-year deal worth £300,000-a-week, Rooney’s record of 253 goals appears within reach.
Rashford, talking to the Overlap in partnership with Sky Bet, revealed to Gary Neville that Rooney has encouraged him to chase down his club record total.
‘Hopefully I will [break Wayne Rooney’s all-time United goal record],’ Rashford said.
‘You never know what’s going to happen, but I’m all about scoring goals and trying to make assists. There’s a chance that it can happen.
‘I’ve spoken to Wazza about it – he wants me to do it.
‘He said it would be good for me to do it as I’ve grown up at the club.
‘Hopefully I get the opportunity to try and make it happen.’
Rashford signed his new contract off the back of his best goalscoring season for the club, scoring 30 goals in 56 appearances in the 2022-23 campaign – becoming the first United player to achieve the tally since Robin van Persie a decade ago.
Man United boss Erik ten Hag set Rashford the challenge of scoring 40 goals in the upcoming season back in May.
Rashford believes he is capable of achieving the feat should he remain injury free during the season.
‘Before last season, I always aimed for 20 goals – a good benchmark for a winger,’ Rashford said. ‘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.’
The Man United star has credited Ten Hag’s winning mentality since his arrival at the club last season to help transform the team’s fortunes.
‘When Erik ten Hag came in, I didn’t hear him speak about getting into the top four once, he just wanted to win trophies and he’s got that mentality. It didn’t matter what competition we were playing in, he wanted to try and win everything,’ he added.
‘We gave it everything and let ourselves down in the Europa League, and in the Premier League there was a period where we weren’t defending as well and stopped scoring as many goals as we were – that’s something he’ll [Erik ten Hag] want to address.
‘We’d always bounce back from disappointing results, there is no lower point than when you go to rival teams and concede four, five, six goals, you have to find the positives, and in the games after, we always had a good performance and won.
‘At the minute we’ve got a manager that’s fully dedicated to winning at all costs and he wants us to be as best as we can individually and as best as we can be as a team.’
Rashford admitted it would be a ‘dream’ to lift the Premier League trophy with his boyhood club.
The Red Devils returned to the Champions League by finishing third last season, but finished 14 points behind eventual Premier League champions Man City.
Rashford believes Ten Hag can help the club take the next step to overhaul rivals Man City.
‘When you think about it deeply, there’s nothing better than winning at Manchester United. At the age I’m at, I’ve still got a big opportunity to try and do that,’ Rashford said.
‘The timing is closer than we think, but we still need to take those extra steps and at the minute we’ve got a manager that’s fully dedicated to winning at all costs and he wants us to be as best as we can individually and as best as we can be as a team.
‘At the end of the day, he wants us to win trophies – there’s been some games where he’s come in fuming at half-time because we’re not playing well.
‘He tells us to listen and relax – he knows we’re not playing well, but we’re still in the game but we’re going to fight to win it. It doesn’t matter if we win 1-0 or 3-0, but if we get that one goal, just be ready for that one chance – it’s a refocus.
‘It’s important that I keep that in mind to the point where he doesn’t have to keep reminding me – it just happens naturally.’
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