Surprisingly, Marcus Rashford was not in the starting XI for England’s 3-0 win against Senegal. Gareth Southgate has given his reasons for the waiver.
Rashford had scored twice in the final English Group B game against Wales but was not called up by Southgate – Bukayo Saka returned to the side instead. Phil Foden, who joined the team at the same time as Rashford, kept his place after Raheem Sterling was unable to play after a burglary at his family’s house on Saturday night.
Before the game, opinion prevailed that Rashford would keep his place against Senegal, but Southgate spoke to ITV after the win about his reasons for choosing Saka over him.
“He [Saka] was outstanding in our first two games. We think Marcus was very good too and it’s great that he’s able to come into play when things open up,” said Southgate.
“Obviously we have plenty of opportunities in that area of the pitch. But we liked Bukayo’s performances and we think he and Phil deserved their chance.”
Saka and Foden were two of the better players in England’s dominant win, but it was 19-year-old Jude Bellingham who stole the show. The Borussia Dortmund midfielder was instrumental in England progressing to the quarter-finals.
“We have some super young players that we want to give a chance to prove – Jude, Phil and Bukayo in particular tonight,” Southgate said of his youngsters. “They are on a really good path and these games are a great life experience for them.”
He continued: “I think the progress they are making is phenomenal. The team made a very complicated game look easy tonight. I think because of the mentality and the attitude (of the team) we made it look that way .”
This article was originally published on 90min.com as Why Marcus Rashford didn’t start against Senegal.
