• Southgate: ‘He needs to spend less time dropping back’• ‘England strikeforce most potent in the world’
Marcus Rashford has been encouraged by England’s coaching staff to modify his style and make better use of his speed in an attacking trio that Gareth Southgate now believes is as accomplished as any strikeforce in international football.
Southgate and his colleagues believe the
Manchester United forward could be more effective if he spends less time dropping back to look for the ball and concentrated instead on using his phenomenal pace to get behind opposition defences. The
England manager was full of praise for the impact of his three-pronged attack, with Harry Kane flanked by Rashford and Raheem Sterling, in Saturday’s 4-0 defeat of Bulgaria but there was also some constructive criticism for a player who, by Southgate’s own admission, is not perhaps best deployed as an orthodox centre-forward.