Marcus Rashford says England players lacked dedication before Gareth Southgate arrived – ‘It was a bit of an issue’

Gareth Southgate has improved the standard of England training and the dedication of players during his time in charge of the Three Lions, says Marcus Rashford.

The Manchester United forward earned his first senior England cap in 2016 under Roy Hodgson and six years on, is part of Southgate’s squad at the World Cup after earning a recall.

Southgate took over in 2016 and led the Three Lions to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the Euro 2020 final, but Rashford has been most impressed by the way he’s transformed the environment in training.

“Everyone is ready and I’m raring to go. Training has been good for the lads who haven’t been getting as many minutes,” said Rashford.

“For this squad, I feel like it’s never really been an issue ever since Gareth has been the manager.

“Maybe before it was a bit of an issue in terms of quality of training, and people’s dedication to training, but since Gareth has been manager it’s been intense. Everyone is ready to step in when needed.”

Rashford has come off the bench in both of England’s Group B games so far and scored in the 6-2 win against Iran which kicked off their World Cup campaign.

Asked about the differences between playing under Hodgson, and then briefly Sam Allardyce, and Southgate, the 25-year-old said: “I was only there for a short period of time but the standard of training wasn’t as high.

“For players, it’s black and white if you’re not training well, you can’t expect to play well.

“You can’t expect to go into games and just win because you think you have better players than the other teams. You have to put the work in and earn the right to win football matches.

“For me, it’s two different sides of a coin and it’s as simple as that.

“There’s been a clear change and a clear improvement. We’ve done much better in the major tournaments but even in the games that we’ve played throughout the year with England, we’ve played better and had better results.

“It’s not often I come away with England and feel we’re going to lose games.

“The togetherness is really high and it’s something Gareth has put a lot of emphasis on. We work for each other and leave it out on the pitch.”