Gareth Southgate defends Marcus Rashford decision despite Manchester United form

With Marcus Rashford’s form remaining the attacking highlight of Manchester United’s attack under new manager Erik ten Hag, much has been made of England manager Gareth Southgate’s decision to barely feature Rashford at last year’s World Cup.

Marcus Rashford sits on 18 goals across Manchester United’s four club competitions, it is likely he will be this year’s Carabao Cup top goal scorer, and he has 11 goal contributions in the 10 games since the World Cup – yet he received just 148 minutes at the tournament, with several other attackers favoured ahead of him.

This decision came under some scrutiny both at the time and in the weeks since, yet Southgate has stated recently that he is comfortable with his decision.

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“I think people are looking at his form post-tournament as much as anything,” said Southgate. “Had Marcus played and the result been like that, they’d have been saying Phil Foden should have played, or Jack Grealish, so I’ve got peace with what we did and how we went about it.”

To Southgate’s credit, there is perhaps some truth to what he has to say. In the 10 games closest to the start of the World Cup, Rashford had scored just three goals, with only one of them coming up in the Premier League.

However, with Rashford averaging less than 30 minutes a game at the World Cup, questions will still naturally be asked over if Southgate could have done more with the Manchester United forward. This especially stands true with Rashford leaving the competition as England’s top goal scorer, with three goals from his limited minutes.

Rashford’s performances this season have naturally drawn huge amounts of praise from across the footballing world, with United legend Roy Keane one of many to praise him.

Keane would state that Rashford is “in the form of his life” following United’s EFL Cup victory over Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.

United manager Erik ten Hag has seconded this praise, remarking: “If he is in this mood… this spirit, he is unstoppable.”