When the electronic board was raised in the 64th minute at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon, it was surprising to see Marcus Rashford substituted off the pitch for Anthony Elanga. Not much seems to make sense at Manchester United anymore.
Rashford made his 200th Premier League appearance for United at the weekend. He wouldn't have started in that match if United had the luxury of more attacking options. Rashford has struggled all season, he's endured an overwhelmingly difficult campaign and didn't deserve to start against Everton based on form, but he did make the starting XI and it was yet another precious opportunity.
Although Rashford has regularly failed to take such chances this term, he looked determined not to make the same mistake against Everton. Rashford started the game well and looked bright from the first whistle. The difference in Rashford was stark.
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Rashford immediately tested Jordan Pickford and he was unfortunate not to score. Pickford denied Rashford with a strong hand before preventing him from finding the back of the net from close range just moments later. Rashford looked like the best player on the pitch and that was no coincidence. Rashford had started on the left. He's just not the same player on the right.
That has been problematic after Jadon Sancho's performances down the left side. United paid £72.9m for Sancho in the summer and he failed to hit make a flawless transition to the Premier League. Sancho played on the right-wing across his first months at the club, but Ralf Rangnick playing him on the opposite side inspired improvement and he soon made that position his own.
With Sancho having found his stride, it was the correct decision from Rangnick to start Rashford on the left against Everton. Rashford has looked devoid of confidence this season and playing on the left seems the only way he'll get his career back on track.
Rashford starting on the left coaxed him back to somewhat close to his best - it was certainly an improvement - in the early stages of Saturday's match, however, that tactical decision looked to have compromised Sancho, who was anonymous.
In an attempt to address that problem, Rangnick asked Rashford and Sancho to swap sides just after the 20th-minute mark.
That was unadvisable and a calamitous mistake from Rangnick. Rashford failed to impact the game to the extent he had after that change and Sancho remained anonymous. The tweak had backfired and it was really poor in-game management.
Rangnick committed that offence and didn't learn from it - he committed another mistake instead. Sancho had majorly regressed throughout the match and Rashford had looked the most likely source of goals, but Rangnick chose to haul off the latter for Elanga when making a double change in the second half. It was a bizarre and incomprehensible decision from the German.
Sancho's number should have been raised on the electronic board, not Rashford's. Rashford was finally performing on the left and Rangnick forced him to change sides. The halted Rashford's momentum and any good feeling the 24-year-old had taken from that game was made redundant when he was wrongly substituted for Elanga. Rangnick needs to shoulder the blame for that.
United gambled when appointing Rangnick and the experiment has failed. United have been knocked out of two cup competitions during his tenure, but more importantly, their only chance of saving some face by securing a top-four finish now seems gone.
The result on Saturday might not have been different, but Rangnick's bizarre decisions on Rashford certainly didn't help United.
They just proved that Rangnick has been out of his depth, albeit that has been exacerbated by a gutless playing squad.
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