Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
At 20, Ronaldo was doing step-overs & Harry Kane was on loan.. so time is on Marcus’ side
MARCUS Rashford is ahead of where Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane were at his age – but needs to be made to feel “important”.
That is the warning from Gareth Southgate, who understands the 20-year-old’s frustration at Manchester United but says no one should forget he is a worldclass talent.
Rashford is struggling for game time at Old Trafford but Southgate is sure his displays for England will boost his confidence when he returns for the Reds.
Southgate rates him further down the line in development terms than Kane, who was farmed out on loan four times before making the grade at Tottenham.
And the England boss went so far as to claim that while Ronaldo was doing step-overs at 20, Rashford is already delivering the end product with goals for club and country.
Asked if the youngster was a special talent, Southgate said: “Yes, he is. I don’t think Harry at that age had hardly played anywhere near the matches for Spurs.
“Some of the step-overs and things Ronaldo was doing at that age... but he wasn’t converting them into the number of goals, so we have to give him time to develop.
“He’s still played a lot of football, although maybe not the continuous starts, and I’m really pleased for him that he leaves England full of confidence.”
Rashford scored in England’s 2-1 Nations League defeat to Spain and the 1-0 friendly win over Switzerland and is frustrated at not being a firstchoice for Jose Mourinho.
“He has huge competition for places at his club so you can understand that,” said Southgate. “We really wanted to make him feel important over this period anyway.
“He would have been a bit disappointed about the amount of time he had at the World Cup, but it was important especially to get him in the penalty box and remembering the areas he needs to be scoring from.
“His confidence will be boosted I’m sure – two goals against top-quality opposition in both games.
“It’s not my business to interfere with club managers, they have a difficult job to do and have big squads at the top six. Huge competition for places, so Jose thinks the world of Marcus. He’s a huge admirer of him, but he has his job to do.”
Rashford has started just once for United this term, twice for England and now begins a three-game ban for a domestic red card.
He broke on to the scene just under three years ago, went to Euro 2016 as England’s boy wonder but had only a cameo role and was largely a sub at the World Cup.
Southgate believes there is much more to come, but Rashford’s prospects are not helped by his bit-part role at United. There is also competition with England, although Southgate believes he can fit Rashford, Raheem Sterling
and Kane into the same team.
“There’s no reason why we can’t,” he added. “We have some good young players and have to find, moving forward, the best way to get them into the team in positions where they can have the most impact.
“He is happy to play wherever he can get game time and is still getting stronger. He’s filling out but there is a lot of growth to come physically, still maturing, so that will help him to get stronger through the middle.
“We think it’s important to keep encouraging him to keep running in behind teams with the pace he has.”