The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
BLADES OF GLORY
Sheffield United move up into ninth after defeating Arsenal
Marcus Rashford is determined to kick on after Manchester United’s improved display so nearly brought a surprise victory against Liverpool.
The international break was an uncomfortable period for all connected to the Old Trafford giants, with the loss at struggling Newcastle leading focus to increase on players, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the entire background structure.
Yet United rallied impressively and came out fighting against reigning European champions Liverpool, with Rashford putting the hosts ahead on an afternoon when they would fall just short.
Substitute Adam Lallana secured a late 1-1 draw for Jurgen Klopp’s men, who had won their previous 17 league matches but, in Rashford’s opinion, should have tasted defeat on Sunday.
“My overall feeling is disappointment,” Rashford said.
“I think we deserved the three points and we can say it was a better performance, but at the end of the day they didn’t deserve to draw or win the game.
“So, I see it as we’ve lost two points and it was a big opportunity, a big game, but we keep going.
“We’ll try and get a win midweek and hopefully we can kick on.”
United head to Serbia to take on Partizan Belgrade in the Europa League on Thursday, when Rashford wants to see more of a swagger and cutting edge.
“The second goal would have made the game a lot more simple for us,” the England international said.
“It didn’t come. I’d say 20 minutes before they scored the goal you can see we stopped playing passes in behind.
“And I always say when we stop doing that it puts more pressure on us as a team.”
Rashford added: “This club, we play attacking football and as soon as we take our foot off the gas a little bit it’s difficult to defend against top players for large spells.
“Just like we had to towards the end of the game.
“So, I think we’ve just got to be more positive – at 1-0 or 2-0 up, we need to be more positive.”
The return of Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard will surely help that positive mindset, although Daniel James worked well with Rashford on Sunday and linked up together for the opener.
“We had a bit of eye contact before,” Rashford told MUTV.
“These are the fine margins we’re working with, so probably without looking at each other and getting that little connection we wouldn’t have got the goal.
“Instead, you’d miss which has happened a lot in the past.
“So yeah, it was a good goal, but we definitely want more.”