Sir Alex Ferguson pressure Manchester United stars to deliver

Sir Alex Ferguson once described complacency as a disease when responding to a question about maintaining high standards.

Ferguson knew healthy competition in his Manchester United squad was conducive to raising performances and that complacency might eventually creep into a player’s mindset without pressure on their starting role.

Although football has evolved over the last decade and some of the legendary former manager’s methods wouldn’t work today, the simple concept of having competition for places is never likely to leave the sport.

Erik ten Hag regularly talks about the need for a strong squad and some positions, like left-wing and midfield, have more strength in depth than others, like at striker where Rasmus Hojlund is the only reliable option through the middle.

Anthony Martial spends more time on the treatment table than the pitch and Hojlund would be the only recognised striker available if the Frenchman were to pick up more knocks this season.

Marcus Rashford can play as a striker, of course, but his underwhelming start to the season can perhaps be explained by playing in that position across the first few games, struggling to make an impact and gradually losing confidence.

Rashford is not the same player as a striker and he’s best on the left side, however, he’s played in that role across the last five games and that relocation to the flank has not coaxed the improvement that was hoped.

The 25-year-old has just a single goal, his brilliantly taken strike against Arsenal, so far in this campaign and his performances have received increased scrutiny as a consequence of not consistently finding the back of the net.

Rashford enjoyed the best year of his career last term. He was outstanding and contributed 30 goals and 11 assists in all competitions, which led to higher expectations on his shoulders for this season, rightly or wrongly.

At this stage last season, he had three goals and two assists in the league and that has dipped to just one goal and zero assists this time around, but it’s actually other aspects of his displays that have received more scrutiny.

Rashford’s work rate when the team aren’t in possession has been questioned and his decision-making has been criticised. He’s got a tendency to overplay and his mistakes have been highlighted because he hasn’t been scoring.

Moments ultimately decide matches and a goal can turn a poor overall performance into a decent display, meaning that if Rashford had just a few more goals to his name, the conversation around him would be different.

Rashford was rested against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup earlier this week and Alejandro Garnacho, who scored just his second goal for the club when making the starting line-up, emerged with credit playing on the left.

The challenge for Garnacho is to make the same impact when starting as he does from the bench and he accomplished that in midweek, albeit against a woeful Palace side who already looked beaten after the first whistle.

Ten Hag said he expects an ‘entirely different’ opponent when Palace visit Old Trafford for a league fixture on Saturday afternoon and he’s set to pick his strongest possible team again, which means Rashford will start.

Rashford was genuinely undroppable throughout last season and you couldn’t make a case for Garnacho to start over him at the start of the new campaign, but the gap between the pair might not currently be as wide as it was.

Garnacho has put pressure on Rashford thanks to his midweek performance and that should have given him added motivation to show the young Argentinian who is ahead in the pecking order this weekend.

The egos of players shouldn’t be underestimated and although Rashford won’t feel threatened, he’ll no doubt want to assert himself again after watching Garnacho score and take the plaudits in the Carabao Cup win.