Marcus Rashford has been through enough battles — with opponents, with form, with the spotlight — to know that a little competition for a spot in the England lineup isn’t going to rattle him. So when the question came up about the growing debate between him and Anthony Gordon for a starting role under Thomas Tuchel, Rashford basically shrugged and pointed at the team sheet.
“We’re one team and we have to fight for each other in the exact same way that you fight for your club teams,” Rashford said. “That’s the norm now.”
It’s the kind of answer you’d expect from a guy who’s been doing this for a decade. Rashford is expected to be fit for England’s Tuesday night matchup against Ghana in what should be a pretty telling test for Tuchel’s squad. There was some concern after Rashford missed a practice game against Sporting KC — he’d been dealing with a thigh issue he felt during the World Cup opener against Croatia — but he trained with the group on Saturday and appears to be good to go.
The Gordon Factor
Gordon got the start against Croatia while Rashford watched from the bench. Then Gordon scored a hell of a goal off the bench anyway. That’s the thing about this England squad: it’s loaded enough that guys who could start for almost any other country are fighting for minutes. Rashford gets it. He’s not pretending otherwise.
“We understand it’s difficult because everybody wants to play and a lot of players deserve to play,” he said. “At some point, players are going to be disappointed, but it’s about how you handle it.”
That’s about as diplomatic as it gets. But don’t mistake the calm tone for a lack of hunger. Rashford knows what he can do. He also knows what England needs to do against Ghana, a team that always seems to bring a little extra energy when they face the Three Lions.
What Rashford Wants to See Against Ghana
Rashford kept it simple when asked what it’ll take to beat Ghana. He talked about intensity. Not tactics, not personnel, not anything complicated.
“I think we have to bring an intensity that they can’t live with and we try and stick to that,” he said. “If we can play at that level, it can win you games.”
His point was that England can’t control what Ghana does. They can control how hard they work, how sharp they are, how they handle the full 90 or even extra time. That’s the kind of veteran thinking you want from a guy who’s been in the mix for years now.
“The one thing we can predict is how we conduct ourselves over 90 minutes or 120 minutes,” Rashford said. “So I think we just have to focus on that as players. We just have to keep pushing ourselves. We’re definitely capable.”
England and Ghana kick off at 9 p.m. It’ll be interesting to see who Tuchel starts on the wing.
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