Southgate: Marcus has real swagger
GARETh SOUThGATE hailed Marcus Rashford’s ‘swagger’ last night and claimed he is beginning to enjoy himself again after a difficult season at Manchester United. The 20-year-old scored a stunning opening goal in a 2-0 victory over Costa Rica at Elland Road to give Southgate a selection headache. Rashford looks set to go head to head with Raheem Sterling for a place in the side as England prepare to fly to Russia ahead of their World Cup opener on June 18. ‘What pleased me most is that he (Rashford) enjoyed his football tonight, he played with a real swagger,’ Southgate said. ‘he’s a Man United player and was booed at the start and cheered off at the end, so that tells you about his performance. ‘I thought his linking was good, his individuality and running at people and taking people on in and around the penalty area was good. It’s a wonderful strike for the goal. And he worked incredibly hard for the team to press and shut down. ‘he had a difficult end to the season, having to play on his own as a No 9 at times. he’s still filling out and growing, we often forget how young he is. But today he had that exuberance and you could see he was teasing defenders and it was lovely to see. ‘We’ve got great competition for places right throughout the team. We saw that tonight. The team, the patterns of play, the professionalism, the tactical approach — the last two matches we have carried things out really well.’ Former England striker Ian Wright believes Rashford is going some way to proving his doubters wrong after a stop-start season at United. ‘We’re looking at someone whose confidence is going through the roof at the moment,’ Wright said. ‘he looks like he’s got a point to prove. he’s someone I absolutely adore down the centre. ‘Sterling is on the bench thinking, “Wow, he’s playing really well and scored a great goal, something I haven’t really done for a while for England”, and he’ll realise, “I need to up my game”.’ Southgate added he would ‘sleep on’ his starting XI as England escaped without injury despite Kieran Trippier’s hamstring issue. ‘We seem to have got through the two games without any serious injuries and we’ve got to have players who can come in and change matches — chase games and shut games down,’ he said. ‘I’m really pleased with the three weeks’ preparation. We’ve given ourselves a really good platform.’