Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Flexible Marcus Rashford reminds me of Manchester United's Rooney-Ronaldo-Tevez front three, says Gareth Southgate

Rashford scored England’s match-winner in the 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over Slovakia, continuing his supreme development

Miguel Delaney
Chief Football Writer
Wednesday 06 September 2017 06:56 BST
Comments
Marcus Rashford is impressing on both the domestic and international stages
Marcus Rashford is impressing on both the domestic and international stages

Gareth Southgate says that Marcus Rashford reminds him of a young Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen in terms of his game intelligence for a teenager as much as his talent, and argued the 19-year-old doesn’t need to be a fixed striker because of the nature of the modern game.

The England manager even highlighted how Rooney interchanged with Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez for Manchester United in 2007-08 as an example of how Rashford’s positional flexibility in attack can be so potent.

Rashford scored England’s match-winner in the 2-1 World Cup qualifying win over Slovakia, continuing his supreme development and emphasising the argument that he has made the biggest impact as a teenager for the national team since Rooney in 2004 or Owen in 1998. Southgate had been asked whether it was a positive thing that he was compared to them.

“I am sure he would rather be compared with Rooney and Owen than not. He is obviously a different type of player. He is as mature as they were in terms of their understanding of the game and the way he picks up concepts.

“I think he can play [up front], but you saw what he is capable of here and in Malta on the other wing. If you have flexible forwards who can play across the front line, if you think of United’s great forward line with Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo, interchanging then it is important.”

Southgate also noted how encouraging it is that the English attack is so young in general.

“Well the great thing is that if you look at our forwards with Dele [Alli], who is only a year older [than Rashford], Harry [Kane] is only a couple of years older. We have some really exciting players coming through the under-21s as well. We know we can score goals, that is encouraging, and if we get the other bits right then we know we are dangerous in any game.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in