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Former Premier League striker Ian Wright has called for Manchester United star Marcus Rashford to be dropped after failing to impress with England during the international break.
Rashford – currently on loan at Aston Villa from United – was called up by Thomas Tuchel for the first time in 12 months.
In an even bigger vote of confidence in the forward, who has enjoyed an uptick in form since temporarily joining Villa, he was named in the starting XI for England’s meeting with Albania last week.
Rashford failed to justify his selection, producing a tepid performance. He and Manchester City’s Phil Foden were called out by Tuchel for not being impactful enough in the match.
Foden was named on the bench for the next game against Latvia, but Tuchel kept faith with Rashford, who had a much better game.
However, it appears Rashford still didn’t show enough to make Wright happy.
Speaking on Wrighty’s House, the former Arsenal man initially praised Villa midfielder Morgan Rogers before providing a stinging critique of Rashford.
Wright said, “He [Rogers] was trying to beat them. He was trying to get crosses in and he’s done that, and that is why I thought with Marcus [Rashford] – you know what I mean?”
“The ball gets to him and I’m thinking, right, yes, go, and it feels like he’s going to do it, then he stops and then he comes back. There’s something that’s stopping him from – he’s got to play like he’s going to fail.”
“If I go take this guy on and he tackles me, he tackles me – but I might get past him and then when he does get past people, the actual decision is not great.”
The 61-year-old added, “So I think that he’s very fortunate to get those two games. But we need the Morgan Rogers’ energy who’s coming into the squad. He’s ready to go. He knows exactly where he is in his head.”
“And he knows what he’s got to do. And I think that Tuchel will put even more pressure on those wide players to come on and do something.”
“And that is what I’m looking forward to, that is where the excitement, what he keeps talking about is coming from, people just doing it. If Marcus carried on taking him on and made it exciting, got some crosses in, you’d think, yeah, but it just feels like, right, you’ve had two goes there, my friend.”
“We’re going to have to bring someone else in, because again, it’s 18 months.”
Despite registering four assists in nine games for Villa, Rashford has yet to open his goalscoring account for the club and will be hoping to do so on Sunday when they take on Preston in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Featured image Julian Finney via Getty Images
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