ICELAND TO DREAMLAND

Rashford: It doesn’t take a genius to see how we’ve improved since 2016. It was a million miles off where England is today

LIKE everyone else, Marcus Rashford knows that memories in football are becoming shorter and shorter.

Just over a week ago, England fans were serenading Gareth Southgate – singing he was ‘still the one’ after the 6-2 thumping of Iran – yet on Friday, they were jeering him down the tunnel of the Al Bayt Stadium.

Rashford smiled and said: “When you’re winning, you’re the best team in the world and when you’re losing, you’re the worst.”

Or even when you are drawing against a decent United States team, the Manchester United striker could have said.

But Rashford’s memory is a bit better than your average fan, stretching back six years to when England were dumped out of Euro 2016 by Iceland.

Rashford has only just turned 25 but this is his fourth tournament with England and, as Southgate comes in for criticism on the back of the stalemate with the USA, the contrast with the dark days of his early experiences is still stark.

He says: “I don’t think it takes a genius to see how we’ve improved since 2016. I was only there for a short period of time before [Southgate arrived] but the standard of training was not as high.

“For players, it is black and white. If you are not training well, you can’t expect to play well and go into games and win just because you think you are better players.

“Before, it was a bit of an issue in terms of quality of training and people’s dedication to training. But since Gareth’s been manager of England, it’s been good, it’s been intense, it’s been challenging.

“Back in 2016, if you look at that performance when we got knocked out of the Euros, it is a million miles off where we are now. You cannot really compare the two situations. And for me, you cannot compare the feeling around the camp. The confidence levels are as high as they should be.”

Roy Hodgson, who gave him his debut in May 2016, might not like hearing Rashford’s analysis but it was a thumping endorsement for all that Southgate has done in his time as national manager.

And bear in mind, this is the same Southgate who did not select Rashford for 16 months after the Euro 2020 final.

But after coming on against Iran and scoring with his first involvement since missing that penalty in the Euro 2020 shoot-out, Rashford implied that it felt like he had never been away.

And he is absolutely convinced this squad – even though it went through a six-game winless run leading into Qatar 2022 – is still getting better. Rashford added: “We’ve come on so much. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves along the way. I feel we’re a really strong team that has the capability to go and win against any side we play against.

“We don’t fear anybody. We believe in ourselves and we believe in how we can affect the outcomes of games.

“We want to win games, we want to score goals, we want to play attacking football. And if we can entertain, we really want to do that.

“We stick by each other in tough moments and in good ones. It is up to us to go and prove we have what it takes to win it – but do I believe we do? Yes.”

It is up to us to go and prove we have what it takes to win