“It works really well” – Gareth Southgate told key England tactic relies on Marcus Rashford and two others

Micah Richards has suggested that Gareth Southgate should utilise Manchester United winger Marcus Rashford in an offensive England trio to help get the best out of the team.

Rashford, 25, started against Italy and managed to score the second goal of the game with a fierce strike into the far corner after cutting inside on his dangerous right foot.

The Three Lions ended up winning the game 3-1 after initially going behind in the 15th minute of the match. Harry Kane scored a brace alongside Rashford’s strike.

It was also Jude Bellingham who shone in the game despite not getting on the scoresheet. He assisted Rashford’s goal and won the penalty for Kane to slot in his second of the game.

The Real Madrid midfielder has been excelling in an advanced role at the peak of the midfield and has been similarly positioned in recent games under Southgate.

Richards, the former Manchester City defender, believes that both Bellingham and Rashford have offensive styles that complement Bayern Munich striker Kane’s tendency to drop back into midfield at times.

“We know what England can do. We have talked before in the past when [Harry] Kane comes really deep, we have got to play with those runners,” said Richards whilst speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast. “[Jude] Bellingham loves to run into space and, when you have [Marcus] Rashford coming in off the left, it works really well.”

Rashford’s record under Southgate for England has been excellent. He scored three times at the 2022 World Cup despite starting only one game in the tournament. Overall, the United forward has 22 direct goal contributions in 54 appearances, but only 24 of those have been starts.

This season, the United man has not got off to the best start. Last term, he bagged 30 goals but has not looked confident in front of goal so far this campaign.

However, he almost always looks dangerous and his goal for England could help him as he returns to club duty under Erik ten Hag, with a game against Sheffield United upcoming this weekend.

“That’s the good thing about Rashford. He’s been mediocre by his standards this season,” added Richards.

“It always looks like things are going to happen for him, but it’s not really happened for him at United, so far. In the game [against Italy] it looked like he was going to have another one of those performances where things were not going his way, but he can just come alive.”