Joker Jesse takes credit as Rash is back scoring for fun
JESSE LINGARD reckons he has turned Marcus Rashford into Manchester United’s smiling assassin.
Rashford put two months of frustration behind him with a stunning double to sink Liverpool at Old Trafford.
He celebrated his first league start since Boxing Day with a first-half brace to impress the watching England boss Gareth Southgate.
It was also a timely reminder to United manager Jose Mourinho that he has far too much talent to be left stuck on the bench.
Lingard reckons Rashford has the mental toughness to cope with whatever is thrown at him.
But he admits his England and United team-mate hasn’t had the chance to sulk – because he’s been winding him up with pranks all season to keep his spirits up.
Talented
Lingard said: “He has got good people around him, and they always assure him he is in a good place at the moment.
“What kid wouldn’t want to be at Man Utd at the moment? He is doing well, he has come in and he has got the right mentality and he has shown the manager what he can do.
“You can’t be depressed around me, I’m always winding him up.
“It’s good that you can be around him to have a laugh and reassure him that if he gets a chance, he will perform and he has done that.”
The 20-year-old has the world at his talented feet, with Lingard insisting there is no limit to what his best mate can achieve.
“It’s a big club with big players and for players like me and Marcus it’s going to be tough to start every game,” he said.
“But once you are on the pitch, you have got to make an impact and maybe the next game you will be playing.
“But you’ve got to always work hard – and he does. He has that confidence to go on and score goals.
“Against any team he can do that, he has that level of confidence to do it. So if he can keep improving, keep doing what he is doing, the sky is the limit for him.”
The joke was on Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp on Saturday, with the visitors conceding two sucker-punches in 10 mad minutes.
A bizarre own goal from Eric Bailly after the break offered them hope of a fightback and Klopp’s men laid siege to the United goal in what became a blood and thunder clash.
But all their huff and puff wasn’t enough to blow the home house down.
Woeful duo Sadio Mane and Mo Salah didn’t come close to unlocking a solid and organised United defence, in which Bailly and Chris Smalling were both outstanding.
Liverpool’s first league defeat in nine outings leaves them five points behind United in the race for second place, with former Anfield greats Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher hammering their defence.
But Klopp insists his side deserved more from the game and couldn’t care less what the TV pundits think.
He said: “I don’t get it. If you wouldn’t tell me, I would never watch it. That makes absolutely no difference to me, what people say.
“They said we defended bad? If somebody said it was only Trent’s (Alexander-Arnold) mistake then the guy who said that has no idea about football and I wouldn’t listen.
“We cannot defend everything. Rashford did brilliantly. It’s easy afterwards to talk about it.
“I’m not interested. They don’t give us points, they don’t cost us points, they are only the deliverer of good and bad messages, that’s all.”