It is when you assess the forward lines at the big clubs in England and across Europe that it becomes harder to rationalise what Manchester United are doing to - and expecting of - Marcus Rashford this season. Carrying the burden of spearheading the attack in a team without either the right support upfront or creativity from midfield and the flanks would test even the capabilities of the continent’s most experienced centre-forwards.

Asking a player who is younger than Tammy Abraham, who has not played a full season as a central striker and who looks most at home cutting in from the left - as he does well for England - to take almost sole responsibility for leading the line seems as naive as it does negligent.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is reluctant to accept United erred by not bringing in quality replacements for Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sánchez this summer but it is a decision that is already backfiring and one of the main players to suffer has been Rashford. He is being asked to do too much, too soon, too often in a team bereft of confidence and chronically short of senior leaders and, for all his talents, for all his work ethic, there is a limit to what he can realistically be expected to achieve with what he has around him.