Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford scores the opening goal against Liverpool at Old Trafford on March 10, 2018 © AFP / Oli SCARFF
MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, Mar 12 – Marcus Rashford is confident his development will not suffer from a lack of game time after scoring twice in a 2-1 victory against Liverpool on his return to the Manchester United starting line-up.
Saturday’s match at Old Trafford was Rashford’s first Premier League start since Boxing Day, and just his third in all competitions in 2018, but there was little evidence of rust as second-placed United put further distance between themselves and their bitter rivals.
“In these types of games, when the pressure is on you, you just be yourself and I think that’s what seems to happen in these games and the team seems to react well, when maybe we don’t react as well in other games,” said the 20-year-old.
Rashford boosted his chances of earning another start against Sevilla in the Champions League on Tuesday — the first leg of the last-16 tie finished 0-0 — but he said he was doing most of his learning on the training pitch.
“Right now, I’m probably not learning the most on the pitch,” said the former academy graduate, who hopes to play a key role for England at the World Cup in Russia.
“In training is where I’m doing most of my learning. You have to take it into the game and today it worked.
“Personally, taking the confidence from this game into the next games is important.”
Rashford, who faces fierce competition for a starting spot from the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard, said he did not feel the need to express his frustrations to manager Jose Mourinho.
“He doesn’t have to (speak to me),” said the forward. “In football you are going to be up, you’re going to be down.
“The most important thing is sticking together as a squad. Everyone turns up every day for training, we all work hard, we all do the necessary things.
“We are all in it together. Sometimes you are in the team, sometimes you are not in the team.”
Fellow academy graduate Lingard, who had to bide his time at Old Trafford before making an impact, backed his friend to succeed.
“It’s good that you can be around him to have a laugh and reassure him that it’s going to come good and that if he gets a chance he will perform, and he has done that today,” he said.
“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 but once you are on the pitch you have got to make an impact and maybe next game you will be playing. But you’ve got to always work hard, and he does.”
