Get it together, Marcus! No more excuses for Rashford after letting down Man Utd with midweek partying - he must stop 'wasting his talent'

Rashford's trip to Belfast is not the first time he has made negative headlines for his lack of discipline. He turned up late for a team meeting before the visit to Wolves last season and was dropped from the starting line-up by Ten Hag. However, he was in such good form at the time that the Dutchman could not make a real example of him and, with the score 0-0 at half-time, he turned to Rashford, who went on to win the game.

All was forgiven and Ten Hag lovingly embraced him after the game, when Rashford opened up on the reason for his punishment: oversleeping. This was the season that Rashford scored 30 goals in all competitions and for a three-month period he was one of the hottest forwards in the world. The odd indiscretion could therefore be brushed aside.

But this season his form has fallen off a cliff. He has just four goals and has slipped out of the starting line-up due to his consistently bad performances, losing his place on the left of the attack to the effervescent Alejandro Garnacho.

He has been one of the main culprits in United's miserable season and the fact they are eighth in the Premier League and finished bottom of their Champions League group. In other words, he does not have the wiggle room he had last year and he cannot afford to mess about.

And yet he keeps messing around. After the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in October he went out to a nightclub to celebrate his birthday. There was no suggestion of misbehaviour or over-indulgence and he was with his family. But it sent out the wrong message. A humiliating thrashing to your local rivals is no cause to celebrate and certainly not in public. A player that has grown up in Manchester and spent his life with United should have known better.

When Real Madrid were hammered 4-0 by Atletico Madrid in 2015, Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos opted against going to Cristiano Ronaldo's birthday party later that night. When word got out that Madrid's players had partied after such a heavy loss, the Spanish media had a field day and the fallout led to their results nosediving, with them ending the season empty-handed while Barcelona won the treble.

Ten Hag made it clear how he felt about Rashford's indiscretion after the derby, labelling his actions "unacceptable". That should have sent out a warning to Rashford. But just three months later he has done it again. And his latest infraction is far worse as it led to him missing training.

What is most frustrating about Rashford's behaviour is that it indicates a lack of hunger to keep proving his quality. Since breaking into United's first team in 2016 at the age of 18 he has looked like he had the makings of a top class player without ever being truly world class.

Until last season he had only once passed the 20-goal per season barrier. He has been a good player for England without ever being a nailed-on starter for Gareth Southgate. And just two seasons ago there were serious doubts about where his career was going.

He had been reeling from the effects of having back surgery and looked shorn of confidence as well as unhappy. Everything changed in the summer of 2022, when, before pre-season began, he went on an intense training camp at Nike's headquarters in Oregon to work on his explosivity.

His hard work paid off and last season he was truly incredible, scoring 30 goals and adding 11 assists, firing United to their first trophy in six years and back into the Champions League. He used his form as a negotiating tool when discussing a new contract with United and eventually sealed a bumper deal that made him the club's highest-paid player, earning an estimated £375,000 ($476,000) per week . His off-the-pitch charity work and the courage he showed to take on the Conservative government over school meals made him an excellent ambassador for United, the type of asset they were desperate to keep.

Some suggested at the time that his upsurge in form was a classic case of a footballer playing for a new contract and that his resurgence would not last. For whatever reason, he has gone backwards since signing the contract.

Rashford, of course, is not playing badly on purpose and he has appeared very frustrated with his drop in form, often looking angry and dejected on the pitch. But only he can turn things around and going out clubbing is not the way to do it.

On one level his night out was refreshing. A footballer letting his hair down and spending time with one of his old friends. The choice of venue in Belfast, hardly a clubbing mecca, was also intriguing. Thompson's Garage is regarded as a rough-and-ready night out, not the type of exclusive venue where elite footballers are normally seen.

But if Rashford wants to keep moving forward as a footballer and make his performances of last season a trend rather than an anomaly, he needs to grow up and show some responsibility.

He has shown in the past that he is capable of knuckling down and working hard and when he is at peak fitness and focus, he can be unstoppable. Remember his slalom run goal against Burnley and how he tore his way through Barcelona at the Camp Nou.

Then contrast that with his miserable displays this season. His anonymous performance at St James' Park tops the bill but he was also poor in the abject defeat at Nottingham Forest, against Brighton, Crystal Palace and City.

However, he was looking to be on the road back. He was exciting against Wigan and dangerous in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham, linking up superbly with Rasmus Hojlund. But he has burned that progress by showing contempt to his team-mates and coach.

He has also tested Ten Hag's authority, giving the coach yet another off-field problem to solve after the Mason Greenwood affair, Antony's alleged behaviour towards women and Sancho speaking out against him on social media. Sancho's departure to Borussia Dortmund on loan removed an unwanted distraction for the manager and the team, yet just two weeks later Rashford has given him more grief.

Perhaps wary of how he may have caused the rift with Sancho by criticising his performance in training in September, Ten Hag was at pains to not discuss Rashford with the media before or after the match at Newport. “He reported ill [on Friday], for the rest, it’s an internal matter. I’ll deal with it,” he said. After repeated questioning from journalists, including on whether Rashford had lied to the club, he responded: "We will deal with it, I will deal with it."

But Ten Hag's silence has not helped the matter go away and Rashford's behaviour was the biggest topic of the day even after a hugely entertaining FA Cup tie. "If it's an internal matter, then you would think something's up. I mean, there's a huge talent in there with Marcus Rashford. And we saw him disciplined last season when he was late for a meeting. But something is clearly wrong," said Alan Shearer on the BBC.

"Either at home, or his relationship with the football club, because he can't keep doing this. It can't waste his talent. It's not right, it needs strong management." Ten Hag has tried to offer 'strong management' after being confronted with what he called a 'no-good culture' when he took over United in 2022.

Standards had been allowed to slip under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho, with players arriving late "almost every day", according to former midfielder Nemanja Matic. Matic and a few others tried to solve the problem by imposing fines for lateness, collecting £75,000 ($95,000) in one season. Ten Hag has tried to instill a new disciplinary regime but Rashford doesn't seem to be listening.

"We talk about Man United so much and the off-field problems, not just on-field problems that they have. Marcus needs to understand he is a public figure wherever he goes, there's going to be attention on him whether you get the day off or whatever it is," said Micah Richards.

"Those who come to the game today are focusing on what they need to do and now we're asking what's happening off the pitch. And it's just not been good enough from the whole squad since Erik ten Hag has come to the club."

Is it time for Ten Hag to do what Mikel Arteta did with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and force Rashford out the door, just like he did with Sancho? It would be an incredibly sad end for such a talented boy who has spent his life at the club and who United have invested so much in, but the prospect is becoming more and more likely due to Rashford's insolence.

"You want someone to get hold of him and say 'You know what, you'll get to the end of your career and have huge regrets, you can't have that, you don't need that,'" Shearer added. "And it needs sorting and sorting now because 30 goals last season, four this season. When I see him play a lot of the time, it looks like he's got the world on his shoulders. And for someone with that amount of talent, it needs sorting out because he can't waste it."

Ten Hag and his staff have a role to play, as do the other players, but they cannot babysit Rashford and control how he lives his life. It has to come from him. He was the one who bounced back from a terrible year to prove he could be one of the best players in the world and now he is responsible for his own downfall. Only he can put things right again.