Marcus Rashford’s ‘Hidden’ Inspiration Behind Astonishing Goal-scoring Form Finally Revealed

It is rare for a member of a club’s backroom staff to be celebrated like this, but McCarthy is not your average coach.

The 45-year-old South African has been widely credited with helping to revitalise Marcus Rashford’s career since joining Erik ten Hag’s staff last summer.

United sources stress that McCarthy is just one of a number of key figures in Team Ten Hag, but the former Blackburn and West Ham striker was brought in specifically to improve the forwards and there is no doubt that he has been one of the factors in Rashford’s sensational form.

The 25-year-old’s brace against Leicester on Sunday took his total for the season to a career-best 24 goals, including 16 in his last 17 games.

One-on-one sessions with McCarthy have helped turn Rashford into a more confident, direct striker and also improved his heading, which resulted in emphatic finishes against Leeds and West Ham.

‘He’s definitely helped me a lot,’ said the England international in November. ‘To have attack-minded coaches is good for us. He’s always there speaking to us about these things.’

Jadon Sancho, United’s other scorer on Sunday, asked to work one-on-one with McCarthy after spending some time away from the club over New Year, and Anthony Martial also values the advice of the coach.

Explaining the decision to bring in McCarthy, Ten Hag said last month: ‘In our coaching staff, we had a lot of defenders and midfield players. I wanted to find a good balance. He is offensive-minded as he is a former striker, and that is also a really specific task in the team.

‘I never played there, so I’m lucky to have someone on my staff who did. Football is about scoring. You have a goalkeeping specialist, but you also have offensive specialists and, in particular, we have a specific scoring coach.’

McCarthy also speaks four languages — English, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese — which helps him communicate with all the United players. It is one benefit of a well-travelled playing career that began in his native Cape Town and took McCarthy to Ajax, Celta Vigo and then Porto, where his two goals helped to knock United out of the Champions League in 2004 as Jose Mourinho’s side went on to conquer Europe.

He scored 52 goals in 140 games for Blackburn — finishing second to Didier Drogba for the Premier League’s Golden Boot in 2007 — before a disappointing spell at West Ham.

McCarthy also played 79 times for South Africa and is his country’s all-time leading scorer with 31 goals. He turned down an offer to take charge of the national team last year, having completed his coaching badges in Northern Ireland and started out in management in South Africa at Cape Town City and AmaZulu.

With Ten Hag looking for a forwards coach, and having failed to tempt Robin van Persie back to Old Trafford from Feyenoord, McCarthy’s agent suggested a meeting with the United manager and the club’s football director John Murtough

He pushed the fact that McCarthy knew the Dutch philosophy from his days at Ajax, was familiar with the Premier League and had a good track record of improving players.

McCarthy was asked to take a few sessions with United’s Under 23s at Carrington, which were observed by Ten Hag and his coaches, before he was offered a full-time position while the club were on tour last summer. It is said that he did not even ask about the salary before accepting.

McCarthy, who had been on the shortlist for the managerial jobs at Hearts and Barnsley last year, is known to fancy a return to management at some point.

For now, though, he is happy being part of the team under Ten Hag at United — where he is known as a larger-than-life character popular with the players and the fans, as Sunday’s chants demonstrated.