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Time to trust Rashford?
- Updated: September 7, 2016
After his hat-trick for the England Under-21 side, the buzz about Marcus Rashford has escalated again ahead of the Manchester derby. The youngster is being managed carefully by club and country, but Adam Bate wonders whether the time has come to unleash him…
It’s less than six months since Gareth Southgate deigned to omit Marcus Rashford from his England side on the grounds that “it was a bit early for him exposure-wise to be with the Under-21s”. So it raised a laugh as well as a smile to see the Manchester United forward suggest on his debut against Norway that he’s already too good for that level of football.
Surpassing expectations seems to be Rashford’s calling card. Roy Hodgson spoke of him not having “an awful lot of experience playing in that system” when used in a wide role in his first game for the senior England side in May. He’d volleyed one home within three minutes.
Rashford’s own academy coach at United, Nicky Butt, said it was “too soon” for the player to go to Euro 2016, only for the 18-year-old to leave the country convinced his involvement in France actually came too late. One cameo against Iceland hinted at what might’ve been.
Even some of Rashford’s old coaches at Fletcher Moss Rangers have become uneasy about the attention on the teenager, despite their own understandable urge to shine a spotlight on the club. Protecting the player is the priority and …
