Marcus Rashford considering Manchester United future

Marcus Rashford is considering his future at Manchester United after he was left out of the starting XI for the defeat to City.

Rashford has started two of the last 11 Premier League games and his situation was aggravated in the 4-1 thrashing at City, where Anthony Elanga started ahead of Rashford in what was the 19-year-old's ninth league start.

Rashford's role on the bench was particularly striking in the absence of fellow forwards Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood.

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United manager Ralf Rangnick revealed he considered playing Rashford through the middle but chose a strikerless formation to match City, with Bruno Fernandes playing as a 'false nine'. Rashford and Jesse Lingard came on in the 64th minute for Elanga and Paul Pogba.

"We didn’t have that many strikers available for the game today," Rangnick explained, "and for us, the question was do we play with Marcus to start with or do we play a false nine like Bruno and have one more midfielder on the pitch and make sure we win balls there and have enough players?

"It was clear they will always try to create numerical superiority in the middle of the pitch and that is why I decided to play with Bruno as a false nine."

Sources say Rashford is training well and in good spirits but concede it is not transmitting to matchdays.

Wythenshawe-born Rashford would be loath to leaving his boyhood club, where he emerged from the academy. The 24-year-old is out of contract at United next year but the club has the option of an additional year.

Despite his deal running for a maximum of two more years, Rashford's lack of game-time and a prolonged spell of poor form