Marcus Rashford sets sights on Wayne Rooney’s Man Utd goal record

Marcus Rashford has confessed he wants to hit 40 goals in all competitions this season to inch closer to breaking Wayne Rooney’s all-time goalscoring record for Manchester United.

Rooney leads United’s scoring charts with a return of 253 goals in 559 games, meaning Rashford will have to pick up the pace if he wants to tie things up.

The 25-year-old has found the back of the net 123 times in 359 outings thus far but comes into this season on the back of the finest goalscoring campaign of his career, bagging 30 goals as he rediscovered his groove under Erik ten Hag.

Hoping to get even better this season, Rashford admitted he only has the highest of targets in his sights.

“Hopefully I will [break Rooney’s record],” Rashford told Gary Neville on The Overlap. “You never know what’s going to happen but I’m all about scoring goals and trying to make assists. There’s a chance that it can happen.

“I’ve spoken to Wazza about it – he wants me to do it. He said it would be good for me to do it as I’ve grown up at the club. Hopefully, I get the opportunity to try to make it happen.”

Rashford knows he will have to increase his scoring rate to tie up with Rooney and admitted he is aiming to become the first United player since Cristiano Ronaldo to reach 40 goals in a single campaign.

“Before last season, I always aimed for 20 goals – a good benchmark for a winger,” he explained. “But this season, I’ve [a desire to] hit 30 – we have to try to push it now.

“Towards the end of the season, I was struggling with a few injuries, and I wasn’t quite at it – that’s when the goals started to dry up for a bit. If I can keep that side of it under [control], I feel like I can go on and get 35 or 40.”

Rashford currently sits 18th on United’s scoring charts and needs 22 more goals to level Ronaldo in 14th. 40 goals next season would move Rashford up to ninth, level with Mark Hughes on 163.